[Tragedy Strike Countdown: 4 Days]
At this point in time, five years of the school's teaching period has gone by. Yes, a large chunk of time was jumped. In these five years, Tayer got a large flying school bus type vehicle to give the students little field trips around the planet in like he said he would, the scooters and TV that Stavil brought got to stay at the school, Ruby started watching over the school during the night by staking out on top of the wall because of the possible threat of Morte coming to the school, Wally has barely kept his word on not going to fight Morte, and put alarms in a large radius of the school that alert his phone if someone enters the general area. As for Morte, he's been continuing his plans since there's no one to stop him or slow him down. His little escapades were made far easier because of the robotic army helping. He's made many planets recognize his symbol and logo, and he's not far from being a large and feared faction. Calvon has been a slave working for Biran and Morte all this time, chained to the assembly line, never allowed to leave. At this time, all the students are now 12 years old, and have decided to make their birthday the same date as the first day of school just to make things less complicated. They also upgraded from basic sticks to makeshift stone swords, which are just carved rocks which tied with rope to a wooden hilt. The rock part is covered with a tough Styrofoam and rubbery type material, so that the students can still go all out and fight, but can't hurt each other too bad.
All the students stand in a line, with Ruby, Alth, Thanian, Tayer, and Wally standing in front of them. Wally is holding a little jar filled with slips of paper, and he says to the students "Alright everyone, I'm going to randomly pull out names from this jar, and every two names I get, those two students will be sparring. No holds barred, go until the enemy is knocked to the ground for ten seconds, or if they give up. Use everything you've learned, both sword fighting and physical combat. As you go, I'll be observing the way you fight, and decide how much you've improved. If you've all improved a lot, you'll be making your own swords today." All the student's faces light up with excitement, finally being granted a real weapon.
Wally pulls out two names from the jar, "Violet and Chris. You two are first. Let's see what you got." The two walk away from the group, the girl who was skilled from the start, and the blind boy that was seemingly behind everyone else. The two stand about ten feet apart, Violet assuming the offensive stance, and Chris assuming the defensive stance. "Go!" Wally says, and Violet dashes at Chris. Chris stands his ground, keeping his feet firm on the ground, and his grip on the hilt getting more and more intense the more that Violet hits his sword with hers. Surprisingly, Chris uses his sword to block Violet's attacks very well, not being able to see and all. Violet's offensive form is very good, and Chris' defensive is great. Wally notices these details, and can tell they've been really trying these years. Chris gets more and more anxious the longer the fight goes, and snaps after only a minute. Chris takes charge, and swings at her, putting her into the defensive stance, and the more he hits her sword, the more steps she takes back. Eventually he hits her hard enough to knock her down to the ground, and knocks her upside the head, forcing her to yell "Okay! Okay! You win, I forfeit!" Wally looks at Chris, and raises his arm and yells "Chris, you win! You both did a great job, and get to make your swords today." Violet says "Yes!" with a very excited face, and Chris also has a very excited look. But not just because he gets a sword, he had a sense of power when he hit her to the ground, and when he was in the winning situation. He's never been in that part of the dynamic before, only ever pushed to the side or hit to the ground. This feeling of appreciation and a kind of specialness that he's never felt before nearly gets to him, but snaps back to reality when James runs up to him saying "Good job, Chris!", which just leaves Chris with a smile, and walking back to the group of students, but this time he walks himself. He listens to the sounds of the students, and can guide his way. "James. Did I just walk somewhere on my own? Without you needing to guide me?" Chris asks James, while not even facing him. "Yeah! You're really getting good at all this! Have you been able to do things like this before?" James asks. "Well, when the girl was swinging at me, I actually heard the sword through the air, and I could move my sword just in time to block her attacks." Chris explains. "Cool! Maybe you'll be able to do way more without seeing soon!" James excitedly says to his brother. "Yeah.." Chris says, with a slight smirk, just facing up to the clouds.
Wally pulls out two slips of paper again, and yells "Jacob and Eric you're next!". Jacob and Eric looking at each other, with Eric saying "Heh, I get my rematch finally." Jacob responds with "Oh, you're on!" And runs up to the same area that Violet and Chris fought, with Eric walking behind him. Cyrus yells behind them, "G'luck guys!" The boys both assume an offensive stance, with Wally saying "Go!" shortly after. Jacob advances first, running at Eric. Eric takes a few steps forward and blocks Jacob's attack as he leaps towards him. The two have a very even match, and are good at both attacking and defending. Their movements were fairly basic, however. Mostly all they would do was walk back and forth, and hit each other's swords as hard as they could, little variety. Eric attacks Jacob with the same fury that he's used all through the years, which gets him the upper hand on Jacob, and gets a good strike at his lower jaw, which sends him to the ground. Eric looks down and Jacob, points his sword at his face and says "Give up?" with a comedic tone, and Jacob responds with "You know what, yeah. You win." with a smirk on his face. Jacob stands up, holding his chin, while Wally says "Eric, you win! You both did good. You got stuff to work on, but I think you've both earned swords today." "Oh yes!" Jacob says while Eric gives out a cheerful laugh, that ends in them high fiving each other.
Jasper walks out of the group and yells out, "Wait, why do Violet and Jacob get swords even though they lost? That doesn't seem fair!" "You guys aren't fighting for the swords, you're fighting so I can see how you fight, and I can decide if you deserve them. And so far, everyone that's fought today has deserved swords. Do you think you deserve one, Jasper?" Wally says with a stern voice. "Yeah I deserve one! I'd say I'm the best sword fighter here!" Jasper yells. "Fine. Jasper. Tobias. Come up here. You're sparring." Wally says. "W-what? A-are you sure? I don't know I think someone else should-" Tobias is cut off by Jasper who says "Come on, Tobias. Just get beat again real quick, and get it over with." The two boys walk up to where the previous students fought. Tobias assumes a defensive position, and Jasper holds an offensive position. "Now go!" Wally says. Jasper runs at Tobias, swinging his sword wildly. Tobias stands firm, and blocks every single one of Jasper's attacks. Jasper notices, and quickly begins to get frustrated. He swings more and more wildly, not using any of the forms or attacks Wally taught him. Through the violent swings from Jasper, Tobias sees an opening, and takes it. He elbows Jasper's face and whacks his stomach with the sword, sending him to the ground. "Uhm.. d'ya give up?" Tobias asks. While trying to catch his breath, Jasper says "N..n..no.." and he tries to spring back up to get back into the fight, but Tobias hits him hard on the face, which knocks him out, and leads to Wally saying "You win, Tobias! Good job! You've earned a sword today. Unfortunately, Jasper doesn't." Jasper wakes back up after a couple seconds, angry and quiet. Wally walks by him and says "You'll get your chance. Just not today. Also, all of those that have already sparred, go stand over there, it's just a little less confusing." Chris, Violet, Jacob, Eric, Jasper, and Tobias all walk off to the side of the wall.
Wally looks for and picks out two papers from the jar to throw away, those being Tobias' and Jasper's papers. He pulls out two new ones right after, and yells out "Jade and Dex, you're up." Dex walks up to the sparring area, with Cyrus behind him saying "G'luck Dex!" Jade skips up to the sparring area with Dex calmly walking with her. They both assume offensive stances, and are told to "Begin!" by Wally. These two have a pretty even, but interesting match, they're both good at attacking and defending, and have good stances, but are so evenly matched that neither of the two can gain the upper hand. Dex becomes more steady and watchful through the fight, he backs off and assumes a defensive stance, just to see what Jade's movements are like and how to counter them. Jade notices Dex's new observing behavior, and backs off as well. She also assumes a defensive stance, and is now in a stalemate with Dex. They occasionally take a step forward, building up the suspense in the other students and staff. After two minutes they're back at it. They clash against each other's swords, and after a minute of straight full skilled sword fighting, Jade is knocked to the ground, and says "Okay, you win. That was a good match." Dex lets out a laugh of excitement and yells "Yes! Hahaha!" "You win, Dex, you and Jade both did a good job. Both of you have earned swords." Wally says. Dex and Jade both run to where the other students are that have already sparred.
Wally pulls out two more papers, and gets a smile. "This'll be interesting, Brittain and London, you're both next!" The twins look at each other, with Brittain saying "All right! Don't hold back London, I wanna see you go all out!" "Alright, but don't just go full force and knock me out instantly!" London says. The twins walk up, Britain takes an offensive stance, and London takes a defensive stance. "Now go!" Brittain takes a few steps forward, and London stands still, holding the defensive. After taking a few steps, Brittain runs forward and swings at London. London blocks nearly perfectly. London takes this chance to take the charge, and walks forward while roughly swinging his sword at Brittain's legs, waist, head, and arms. Brittain blocks half of his attacks, and because of this is knocked down to the ground, falling on his back. Because of the common trend through these matches of someone being knocked down and then giving up, London expected Brittain to do the same. Because of this assumption, he let his guard down, Brittain sprouts back up, and punches London in the face, which knocks him off his balance, and then takes all the free hits he can. London falls to the ground, and says "Okay okay okay! Brittain you win, my fault that I lost focus anyways. Heheh.." London says. Brittain helps up London, and they walk off to the other students, while Wally says "What a good match! Good job to both of you, you've earned swords."
Wally then pulls out two more slips of paper. "McJ and Linn, you're up. James and Cyrus, you're sparring after them." McJ and Linn walk up to the sparring area, with Cyrus yet again yelling "G'luck, McJ!" Linn is irrationally offended by Cyrus giving good luck to McJ but not her, and says "Just shut up! Ugh you're annoying." Cyrus just looks at the ground, with James reassuring him by saying "You're not that bad, don't worry about her." Which gives Cyrus a smile. McJ gives Linn a stink eye, and says "You're goin' down!" She just rolls her eyes and says "Sure." "Alright...Go!" Wally says, as Linn and McJ both run at each other wildly. Neither of them took stances beforehand, which lead to both of them being slightly unbalanced when fighting. They violently swing at each other, not really thinking strategy. McJ seems to be using his own fighting moves, they're like half-assed versions of Wally's lessons. Linn is all around bad at sword fighting, which obviously allows McJ to take the upper hand, and throw her to the ground. McJ points his sword down at her face, saying "You're done. Don't get back up." Linn's face is filled with anger, and even a little teary eyed. "Hah! Bold." Thanian says while watching. Linn stands up, and walks silently to the group. "Good job, McJ...you won." McJ has a smug look on his face, but then disappears when Wally says "Neither of you earn swords.".
A loud high-pitched "What?!" from Linn echoes off the walls. "Why? I fought good, and won!" McJ asks. Wally looks down on him and says "Neither of you started with stances, you're both cocky, and barely even used the moves I taught you. It looked like you used your own moves, McJ. Which is fine as long as you use mine as well." McJ replies with "But I'm more comfortable fighting my way! And what's wrong with being cocky?" Wally rolls his eyes and says "If you make your own fighting style, it'll be flawed and you won't be able to beat anyone. Just go with mine mostly, which was approved by multiple martial arts experts. Linn had every chance to jump back up and attack you, but she didn't see any opportunity, so you got lucky. If you were fighting someone with skill, and you were cocky, that would only make them mad and want to kill you. That's just how people are out there." McJ sighs and just says "Fine.." and walks to the other students.
"Now lastly, James and Cyrus. Come on up." Cyrus gleefully jogs up to the sparring area, with James slowly and nervously following behind. James begins to take a defensive stance, but then sees Cyrus already beat him to it. This big skilled student didn't go for the offensive, which is curious to James. "Alright.. Go!" Wally says, which is followed by the two boys slowly taking steps forward. James takes the first advancement, leaping towards Cyrus hoping to catch him off guard. James hits his sword on Cyrus', knocking it away from his body, and takes the opportunity to punch Cyrus in the stomach to try and knock the wind out of him. James punches Cyrus' stomach, but hits the metal chest plate that Cyrus wore all these years instead. James knocked himself back by doing so, with a surging pain pulsing in his arm. When James punched Cyrus, a shockwave of the glitch reflex was sent through his body. Cyrus takes this chance, he pushes his sword forward to hit James in the stomach, and does so successfully, however James catches the sword between his hands before it can go too far and hurt him, dropping his sword on the ground to do so. James pulls Cyrus' sword out of his grasp, and takes it for himself. He jumps up above Cyrus, swings, and hits Cyrus hard across the face. He even lands a roundhouse kick on Cyrus, which wasn't taught by Wally or Alth yet. James then does a strange sword move, that none of the students have done yet or had been taught, he swiftly gets many attacks on the side of Cyrus' neck and arms. After James does this, Wally gets a nervous look on his face. James gets another kick in on Cyrus, which then makes Cyrus say "You win, it's fine, I can't get the upper hand again!" "Heheh.. Alright! I think all that was a little too much, so sorry!" James says, and then looks at Wally and the other students, who are amazed by the fighting skill he showed. And not even just James, him and Chris were both far ahead of everyone else. "Wow.. well, good job to both of you. I'd say you earn swords. Now then, before we actually make the swords for those who earned them, I'll let you guys rest and lay about, and we'll make them later. For now, just hang out." Wally says, and then goes back to Alth, Thanian, Ruby, and Tayer, who were standing in front of the school watching the matches.
"A little harsh on some of them, don't you think?" Ruby says. "What? I don't think so." Wally says, which Thanian replies to with "Well, the ones that didn't get swords were pretty much humiliated in front of everyone. Also in my opinion, McJ should've gotten a sword. That's just me though." "Well it's fine, we'll do something like this again in a week so they have another chance to get swords. Don't you guys have an opinion on who I picked?" Wally says as he turns to look at Alth and Tayer. "No, you're the one that has to decide, not me. I'm not going to tell you how to do your job." Tayer says. "Yeah that's pretty much my standpoint on this too." Alth adds. Tayer notices Wally looking uneasy, and says "Wally, you okay?" Wally looks at them and replies "James and Chris' fighting, you noticed how they're way better than everyone else here?" The staff members nod, "Some of their moves were disturbingly similar to, if not exactly like Morte's stances and moves he's used on me. I don't know how they would know how Morte fights, if they even know at all. It might be subconscious and a coincidence.. But I don't know."
The students begin to congregate with each other, some excited and some upset. Dex and Eric walk up to Cyrus, with Dex saying "We finally get to make our own swords! I've been waiting for this the whole time!" "Yeah, same! I'm glad we didn't have to win for the swords, because I got beat pretty hard haha. But even if I didn't get my own sword, I wouldn't complain. Whenever I wield one it just doesn't seem to be my first choice, I wish we could pick something else if we got the option." Cyrus says. Eric then asks "What else would you use? To me, a sword is pretty cool." "Hmm, I don't know. I'd have to try out more weapons if I was gonna pick a new one." Jacob and McJ walk up to the three boys, with Jacob having an excited expression, and McJ wearing an annoyed and pissed off expression. "That isn't fair at all, he never mentioned anything about not using our own moves!" McJ exclaims, with Dex following up with, "Actually he did. It was a while ago, maybe a year by now, but he did mention not to do it before." Dex explains. "Either way, it's dumb." McJ says. Jacob adds in "Well I'm glad I'm getting my own sword, you were a good match Eric!" "Hah thanks, I'm glad I got to beat you in our rematch." Eric says. James and Chris walk up to the boys with Chris holding onto James' shirt while they walk. James says to Cyrus "Just wanted to say again that I didn't mean to go all out like that hahaha." "Oh, it's fine, by the way, how are you and Chris so good at fighting? You seem like you're way more advanced than everyone else." James begins to speak, but is immediately cut off by Chris saying "Can we go somewhere else, I don't wanna talk to these guys." James wants to say no, but would feel bad denying his blind brother, so he reluctantly says "Alright.." and the twins walk off. "What a lame brother, he won't let James do anything. He tries to control him, and he does. Yet HE earns a sword and I don't." McJ says. "You know, McJ, we'll do this again in a week and you can maybe earn a sword then." Jacob says. McJ's excitement is restored with him saying "Really? Yes!"
All the student's talking is cut off by a loud alarm coming from Wally's phone. While covering her ears, Ruby asks "What is that?!" Wally disarms it, and says "Ruby, go up on the wall. I set up some alarms for the school if someone steps foot in a certain radius around here." Ruby says "Alright!" as she begins jogging a bit to one of the towers on the corners of the walls near the entrance of the school. She walks up the stairs to the top of the wall, and she sees a bizarre looking being that she surprisingly isn't too freaked out by. A tall, scrawny, red skinned humanoid creature with white hair on it's head. It's wearing thick blue lensed goggles, and green pants with weird door-handle shaped bars poking out of his legs. It has large claw shaped feet, armor on it's upper arms only, has dark lips and weird lines on his face starting at each side of his mouth, and is holding a radar of sorts chained to it's belt. It's slowly taking steps forward, mumbling unintelligible phrases to itself. Ruby has a slightly annoyed and confused look on her face, but thinks to herself, "I guess I gotta check this sorta thing out again." She grabs a thin scabbard off the side of the wall in the mini room she's in on top of the walls, and jumps off the 33 foot wall to the ground below her. As she hits the ground, her legs shake a bit from the impact, but continues to walk to the creature. Some of the students open the front gates of the school to get a peek through, including the childish Thanian among the students. "ANOTHER one?" Thanian says aloud. She eventually reaches the creature, and asks, "Who are you? Why are you on this property? Why do so many of you come here". The creature stops taking steps for a second, and lets out a long exhale. "I am the huntsman. I am the peaceful option. I am looking for the Illicit." The creature says, which then begins to take another step forward. Ruby pulls out a strong and sharp katana out of the scabbard she grabbed. She positions herself in an offensive position of some different fighting style, and says, "I know this already, now take another step forward without explaining to me who you are, and you're dead." The Huntsman looks down at his pocket watch style radar, with a red dot in the direction of the school. "You must be guarding the Illicit. Tell them I am the peaceful option." The Huntsman says. "Look, I don't know what you're talking about, just leave this area and you don't need to get hurt." Ruby attempts to negotiate. "I know you are guarding the Illicit, I see it on my radar. You deny me now, and only hellspawn you can't control will come and take it There's no telling how many chances you'll get after me. This is the time. Bring me the Illicit." Ruby begins to get nervous, she hears things about 'hellspawn' and begins to panic from not knowing what might happen. She acts fast, and uses her katana to slice the head of the creature in half, leaving only its lower jaw connected to its body. The radar falls onto the ground, and the screen turns black, while the corpse of the creature erodes and decays at a fast rate. Ruby looks at it in disgust, she looks back at the school and makes a worried type of eye contact with the rest of the staff.
About 20 minutes later, the staff is inside and processing and thinking over what just happened and what it might've meant. "Is this not something to do with Morte? Or Oppac? This is the FOURTH one that's come here!" Thanian asks Wally. "It's possible, but Oppac would've sent a huge group of people with artillery, that's what Quarter-Star is kinda know for, and as far as I'm aware, Morte only has robots to fight for him. This has to be different, and might be something to do with the twins out there." Wally says as he looks up out the window, referring to James and Chris. Ruby adds in, "Yeah, it could be all about James and Chris, but we have no idea what that thing was or where it came from. He said he was the 'peaceful option' but we don't know what he means, and we don't know what the hostile option would mean for us either. We can theorize all we want, but this is something we can't explain yet." "Another thing I noticed when he showed up, is that I didn't get the alarm for him being near the school until he was halfway into the detection field." Wally says. "What do you mean?" Thanian asks. "I mean, he just appeared. He didn't walk into the detection field, he just showed up out of nowhere halfway through." Wally explains. "Well , since we don't know who or what he was, let's try and focus on the class being safe, rather than us going out looking for trouble. If something's gonna happen, we'll find out sooner or later anyways." Tayer says, while mostly directing it at Wally. "I know, I know, I won't do anything unnecessary or uncalled for like I used to, I'll play it safe with you guys." "Good, and I hope you stick to that, Wally. We don't need even more threats against us. And Ruby, you put the clothes, armor, and device left behind in one of the empty crates right?" Alth asks. "Yeah, it's all locked up stairs." Ruby says. "Oh! Guys, can I hold onto the radar he had? I can try tinkering with it to see what it might've been tracking." Thanian asks. "Yeah, sure. But it looked like it powered off when the Huntsman died, you can try though." Wally says. "Okay thanks! I used to tinker with weird stuff like this all the time when I was a kid." Thanian says, as he begins to run up the stairs. "Now that we got all this sorted out, when should we start making the swords?" Alth asks. "Hmm, I'd say we can give them about another hour of R&R and then we can start? But how about we start lugging out the stuff to make them now?" Wally says. "Okay, let's do it." Alth says.
An hour goes by and the students are gathered around three tables set in a line. A stone wheelbarrow type table with ropes and upper and lower compartments connected to it, a long, wooden, and empty table, and a smaller table that has hammers, jars with reflective purple liquid in them, a bottle of strong industrial glue, a spray bottle, tongs, and pieces for the hilts. there is also a bucket of water, a large stone bowl of magma, and an anvil. "Alright everyone, who wants to go first? We'll be going one at a time since we only got one molding table." Wally says. Multiple students raise their hands, so Wally picks "Jacob! You can go first." from the crowd. Jacob walks up to the molding table, and Wally explains "Alright, so to make a sword, we fill up this mold of the blade with magma, then before it's cooled completely, you pour in just a bit of the reflection gel into the magma." Jacob does each of these steps as Wally tells him. "Now grab the spray bottle, cool down the magma and reflective gel mixture. See how the mold is cooling down now? When it's fully solid, we pull down this rope and the center of the table lifts up, turns upside down, and drops the sword into the lower compartment, If it breaks, even just a little bit, we have to redo it." Wally explains. Jacob pulls the rope, but the table barely lifts, so Wally helps him, which makes the table lift and drops the red molten hot blade into the compartment below. It drops down, and doesn't break. "Okay, now, grab it carefully with the tongs, and yes, this is all we had to use for this part, and gently place it on the anvil. Now grab the smoothing hammer, and slide it across the sides. This is making the sharp shape of the blade." Jacob takes his time gently sharpening and smoothening the blade, and after about five minutes of him being a perfectionist, he gets it done and says "Alright! Sorry that took a bit, I wanted to get it just right." Jacob says. "Don't worry, you did great. Now just use the tongs again to dip the blade into the water bucket, and then that part will be done." Wally has a smile while doing this, this is the first time he's had any actual bonding experience with the students. This whole time he never cared for bonding, he only wanted to have a student teacher relationship. "Now, pick your hilt, then grab some of the industrial bottled glue, put some on the guard, connect the end of the blade to it, then we'll let it sit for about an hour, and it's done. You'll have a sword." Wally finishes. Jacob finishes the steps, and lays it on the empty wooden table. "Sweet! Can't wait for this to finish!" Jacob says. McJ walks up to the table with Jacob's sword on it and with Jacob standing close to it. "Good job, Jacob. Can't wait to get my own sword, right when I get it we'll have to duel!" McJ says.
Wally sees the students happy, and almost tears up a bit, but wipes them away to not be noticeable, except that Ruby picks up on it. "Okay, who's next, guys?" Wally asks. About two hours go by, with each student crafting their swords. Since they're all new at this, it takes a bit of time. James puts down two crafted swords onto the table, presumably one of them being Chris'. Wally walks back to the staff, with a gleeful look on his face. "That's a new look." Ruby says. "Oh yeah? I don't know, it was just nice making the swords with them. Felt real fatherly, I guess is the word. I just.. I just wish I was like that this whole time. I adopted these kids as some kind of second chance, and I was barely even a father." Wally says, once again wiping away tears about to come out. "You don't gotta worry about it too much, man. You still got like, what, six years till they move out? You got plenty of time to be a father for them. The men and women they'll grow up to be hasn't been decided yet, you can still make them the best people they can be ahead of time." Thanian says. Thanian's words shock everyone, which makes Alth say "Wow, haven't heard you talk like that before, hah!" "Oh, what? Heh, I guess I get a little philosophical in emotional moments." "He's right, Wally. You have nothing to worry about." Tayer says. Wally looks off in the direction of the students, some running around, carefully sparring with their swords, and some just sitting and talking to each other.
"Let's capture this moment. It's a beautiful day, a big point of their lives was always going to be getting their swords, and since they got them today, I think we should take a picture. You got a camera and tripod right, Thanian?" Wally asks. "Oh, yeah! I got it." Thanian says as he runs inside. "Hey kids, go over to the front gate at the wall, we're taking a picture of all of us together." Wally says. The students all walk to the front, with Wally, Ruby, Alth, and Tayer following behind. Thanian runs back out with his camera and tripod, and interestingly, has a hat on. "What's with the hat?" Wally asks. "Is it bad?" Thanian anxiously asks. "Not really, but you don't really wear hats that often." "It's new, actually. I got it in Osapell yesterday." Thanian explains. "Well alright, wear what you want, I guess. But set up the tripod around there so it can get everyone in the picture." Wally says while pointing at a spot a couple feet from where they're standing. The students stand slightly jumbled together, but still have enough space to stand comfortably. The staff members stand in the back, including Cyrus since he's the tallest of all the students. Thanian presses a button, and says "Okay, 10 seconds!" He runs behind the students as fast as he can to be in the picture. They all wait there smiling for three seconds, and the picture is taken. Five slots open up from the camera, spitting out five copies of the picture. Thanian grabs them, and says "Wow, leave it to Jasper to not smile. But I think that turned out pretty good. Thanian shows the students the picture, and then gives one of the copies to Wally. He looks at it for about 10 seconds, and then says "It's great."