Despite having been there for two days now, I still had no idea how to get from the dorm hall to the arena. Luckily, Scorpio did, somehow. Around halfway to the arena, she threw something at me, "Catch."
"Wha-" I barely managed to get a decent grip on the object. It was a smartphone. "Okay but why?"
"Well, if it's what I think, then you're probably gonna need it."
"Um, okay." I put the phone in my pocket and we kept walking.
Once we reached the entrance, Naomi was standing there. "Well, what is it?" She looked around for a second, "Well, what do you think about raiding one of the Black Hoops' bases?" Scorpio jumped back for a second, "W-what?! Why would we-" She recomposed herself, "Why would we even want to go close to them?" Naomi pulled out a flip phone, "It looked like we've all been wronged by them now." She handed the phone to Scorpio. I looked over her shoulder and read it.
"Topaz mining company attacked.
Last night, a main facility of the Topaz Mining Company was attacked by a group of anonymous gangsters and hooligans. It is believed that the culprits are the local boogeymen 'The Black Hoops'. Police are looking into the incident, but as of now no major developments beyond that have been made. As of now, there are three known casualties, including the now former C.E.O. of the company, Sagittarius Topaz." I looked at Scorpio, who looked at the phone a few seconds longer than I did. She stepped back, "No. It has to be fake. There's no way someone like them could break into one of the facilities. They're just a street gang, not a terrorist organization. Hell, Al Qaeda tried breaking into one of our facilities and failed miserably." Her breathing started to labor. "Scorpio, calm down." She glared at me, "No. You don't know how this feels. My dad is dead. The company could be left in the hands of anyone, I'm not old enough to own it yet. Naomi," She turned around, her breathing suddenly stable again, "I'm in." Naomi nodded, "I thought you would be after that. Well, we've still got a few days to go before we can even leave campus legally. Until then, we need to gather information." I peeked around Scorpio, "I've been near their bases before, and I know which ones are most important, which ones are most heavily guarded, and which ones are easiest to get to." Naomi nodded, "Alright, it's a date then. We'll group on Saturday here and take them out." Scorpio nodded, and started walking back. "Wait for me." I ran after her.
When we got back, Jamie was asleep and Brit was reading a book labeled "Necronomicon". Scorpio got on her laptop. Brit looked up for a second, "What happened?" Scorpio typed something, "Bill, can you tell her?" I nodded, "Her dad died. The Hoops managed to break into a Topaz facility and killed him." She turned the pages in her book, "I could bring him back-"
"Don't."
"What?" Scorpio looked at Brit so intensely I thought she was going to burst into flame, "Don't bring him back. I know about how resurrection works already. He won't be the same. A mere husk of his former self." Brit put a piece of paper on the page she was on and closed the book, "Okay, so I don't need to tell you the consequences." Scorpio nodded, "My sister and I tried to bring someone back from the dead years ago. I remember what happened like it was yesterday. My sister almost lost her arm, and I lost my eye. They weren't human. More of a monster, in a human's skin. Violent, distorted, angry. If our dad hadn't gotten home when he did, we probably would've died." She lowered her head, "But I learned my lesson now." Jamie started stirring, "Wha-" Scorpio started typing something again, "I really don't want to repeat myself." I looked at her screen, "Are you sure you should be looking at articles about it?" She nodded, "We have to gather information. I need to know as much about the facility they attacked, to know what we're against. I also need to know who the other two casualties are. If they've been identified, that is." Jamie looked at the screen for a second. After a few seconds of skimming what it said, she looked at Scorpio. "I'm sorry." Scorpio looked at her for a second, then back to her screen. "We can get to things like that tomorrow. You need to rest, Bill and I need to find a way to hit them back, and Brit-" She paused for three seconds or so, "Brit what do you do?"
"Read mostly."
"Yeah, Brit's gonna do that." Jamie sighed, "Alright, fine. But we are going to talk about this. I refuse to have someone just bottle up their emotions."
"And why is that?" She opened a new tab and started looking some more things up. "I have my reasons. I, really don't want to talk about it."
"Okay. When we talk about this, you talk about whatever it is you're hiding. If you're going to force me to open up you have to do it yourself." Jamie nodded, "Sure." Brit and I looked at each other. I think we both know what we were thinking. 'Wow, was I really just used for character development?' I sat back down on my bed. "Oh, and Bill," I looked at Scorpio, "What?"
"I already know what's coming." What? What is that supposed to mean? "Okay?" I tried to muster more than than, but I really hate it when people are cryptic like that. If you know, why don't you speak about it, especially if it's bad like you imply.