Enter...The Squid! IC

[Lone Star]

Blake took a deep breath as he walked through the gates of Claremont Academy. He was finally here. Unbeknownst to KC, every single one of the students in the school shared a common trait with him. However, Blake was blissfully ignorant and probably in for a big surprise. He had his single dusty suitcase on one arm, containing clothes, comic books, and of course pens, pencils, and paper. He smiled broadly. This was going to be freaking awesome.

[Electra]

He was barely through the gates of the school when he was approached, but not by any of the students dotting the campus grounds. A lanky orange cat, seemingly out of nowhere, crossed his path and approached him curiously, ears pricked and tail waving idly. As he got within a few feet of Blake, though, the cat's steps slowed, then stopped. It stared at him, seemed to get a good whiff of him, and then its entire demeanor changed. With a hiss, the cat arched its back and puffed its tail, laying its ears flat back against its head. It let out one bloodcurdling yowl, then ran off as fast as its furry little legs would carry it.

A moment later, a tall girl in jeans and a blue blouse walked out of the trees around the gate, looking after the cat. "I've never seen him do that," she said, sounding concerned. She turned and sized Blake up, a little suspiciously. "Who are you?"

[Lone Star]

Blake looked at where the cat once was. "Yeah...that is weird. I'm Blake, Blake Salazar." For some reason, this had happened before. Blake theorized that cats could sense occult presences at some level. Made sense, anyway. Blake smiled at her. Not only was this going to be a genius school, there were babes here. Score.

[Electra]

"I'm Erin," the tall girl replied, smiling back at him for all she still looked a little concerned. "You must be new here?" she guessed, looking at the suitcase and the new face. "We've gotten a lot of new mid year students this semester. Huh. What do you do?" she asked curiously. Part of Erin wanted to cut the conversation short and go find her cat, but Oliver would be found when and if he wanted to be found, and not a second before.

[Lone Star]

Blake tilted his head. "What do you mean, what do I do? Well, I was told by a Mr. Summers that I would get a scholarship. I'm an artist." That was a very odd way of asking about someone, but Blake merely shrugged to himself.

[Electra]

"An artist? Huh." Erin was content to leave it at that for the moment; some people didn't like talking about their powers. "That's cool. I'm on a scholarship here too," she admitted. "Lots of people are. It's not bad, but you'll want to pick up a part time job or something if you want money for clothes or to do stuff with. Mr. Summers' office is in the main administration building, over thataway." She fell into step with him as they walked in the direction the cat had gone. There wasn't much better to do this afternoon, and anyone new was a curiosity. "Where are you from?"

[Lone Star]

"I grew up right around here, in Southside. Yeah, a part time job sounds really good though, paint is getting expensive now-a-days." Blake laughed a little. "But I'm just glad to get out of the crappy school and house I was in. This seems like a really cool place, so far."

[Electra]

"It's pretty nice," Erin agreed. "Food's good, and there's always stuff to do. The classes are hard, and they'll train you till you drop, but if you don't mind working, it's a lot more interesting than regular school. You paint?" she asked. "I think they offer some art classes, if that's what you're interested in."

[Lone Star]

"Work is just fine with me, I kind of supported myself by my art for a little while. You said something about training, training for what?" Oh crap, Blake thought to himself. This might be a military school.

[Electra]

Erin gave him a look. "Well, control at first, obviously. But once you've got that down, you can be assigned to a team and start doing useful stuff. It's kind of cool, but just watch out for Mr. Archer. He's a jerk, and he'll beat the crap out of you if he thinks he can get away with it. He's the gym teacher," she explained. "But most of the other teachers are all right. You going to live on campus?"

[Lone Star]

"Control? What, am I learning martial arts, or what?" The nature of the school was once again missed by the rather blockheaded Blake. "It's good to know that the teachers are all right, I've had some real demons in the past."

[Electra]

"Um, powers training?" Erin explained, looking at him as though she thought he wasn't entirely there. "That is why you're coming to the school, isn't it? I mean, if you're just a really super artist, it probably won't take too long to get you whipped into shape, but they'll probably help you develop and stuff, too. That's the way it usually goes."

[Lone Star]

"POWERS?!?! They know? Oh crap! Oh wait, that's awesome, but oh crap! How did he know??" Blake then takes a deep breath, and counts to three out loud. "So that's what you were talking about. What can you do?"

[Electra]

Erin watched the bizarre outburst in baffled silence, not sure of what exactly to say about it. "I think Mr. Summers knows about just about everyone with powers, for whatever reason," she said with a shrug. "Especially people our age. I don't know if anyone's ever specifically asked him though." At his question about her powers, she shrugged again, then flexed her knees and leapt from a standing start, disappearing away above the trees. She was back a few moments later, her feet displacing a small divot of dirt as she landed in the same spot she'd vacated. "Some other stuff too, but that's probably the 'superest' thing. What about you?"

[Lone Star]

"Wow...that's cool." Blake said. "For sure. But watch this."

Blake back up about three feet, raised his arms above his head, craned his neck up and shouted

"CTHULHU F'HTAGN!"

at the top of his lungs! A wash of mystic fire engulfed the young Blake, and when the flames died down, a squid-boy stood in his place. Kid Cthulhu assumed a heroic stance, his hands on his hips, and the tentacles on his face waggling proudly. "I'm Kid Cthulhu, at your service."

KC then pointed his arm at a trashcan and exploded it into green flames with a flick of his wrist. "Pretty sweet, huh?"

[Electra]

Erin watched, wide-eyed, as the new kid made his bizarre transformation. It was... she wasn't sure what it was, but it wasn't like anything she'd ever seen before, that was for sure. "Impressive," she agreed, running a hand through her hair. "I guess that explains why Oliver didn't like you too much. But you better put that out," she went on, pointing to the trash can. "There are rules about destroying property, and you don't want detention on the first day of school."

[Lone Star]

"Fair enough." KC flicked his wrist again, and the fire went out. "It's not even real fire...it's kind of magic fire. But yeah, thanks."

KC thought he was doing pretty well. "Who's Oliver?"

[Electra]

"That is cool," Erin decided, more impressed by the disappearance of the fire than its initial appearance. "Is it just an illusion, or does it actually burn and you can just control it?" She went over to the trash can to look at it, but the smell of cooked garbage was quite unappealing and she didn't stay long. "Oliver is my cat," she explained. "Well, he stays with me, anyway. He's the one you scared off a minute ago."

[Lone Star]

"Oh...sorry about that. Cats tend to not like me. I think they can see magic, or something. But anyway...can you give me a quick tour around campus? I don't want to get lost." KC smiled, as far as that went. "Oh, is this form creeping you out?"

[Electra]

"It's okay," Erin told him, "but most people who have forms besides human go human around here. It might make it easier to meet people." She led him up to the administration building, but didn't go inside. "That's the main building, it's got Summers' office, the infirmary, all the records and secretaries and stuff like that. Most of us only go there for training, 'cause some of the special equipment, the Doom Room and stuff, is underneath it." She detoured for a moment to check for Oliver in the bushes around the front, but he was having none of her for the moment. "The dorms are over this way," she told him, setting off again. "You didn't say whether you're staying on campus."

[Lone Star]

KC turned back into Blake with a flash of green fire. "Yeah! I'm hoping to stay on campus. Do you need help looking for your cat?" Summers could wait.

[Electra]

Erin shook her head. "No, he'll be back when he wants to be back. I don't think he likes you very much, so he's probably not going to show up so long as you're around, but nobody can keep him from going where he wants. He'll be back in my room at dinnertime, if nothing else. If you're staying, you should definitely see the dorms. There'll probably be some people hanging out around there."

[angrydurf]

Mike was lounging in the common room when they came in and popped to his feet with a smile, "Hey Erin how goes?" He glanced to the new student and extended a hand to him, "Hi Mike Harris, You new here?"

He smiled in a friendly manner as he spoke and his grip had a gentleness that belied his rather towering size.

[Lone Star]

Blake smiled and shook his hand. Such nice people! "Blake Salazar, AKA Kid Cthulhu."

He looked at the boy. "Yer a big 'un!"

[angrydurf]

Mike smiled and shrugged mildly uncomfortably. He wasn't offended just not sure how to respond. "Uhhm yea, I guess so." He finally said with a nod, "Good to meet you Blake."

Well he certainly didn't seem big on the secret ID thing that was a welcome change from some people Mike always had trouble remembering who did or didn't know and was worried he'd let something slip to the wrong person.