All's fair in love and war (Open for all)

Paint ball? Paint ball! Koga looked down at the battlefield and surveyed the best spots to snipe from and realized that he could rain down doom from the roof top or any of the trees, or from that line of bushes... Koga pulled on a white long sleeve; he found a pair of matching white slacks. He intended on keeping them clean. He shifted his skin to a clean and crisp white that matched the rest of him. Ryuichi rarely allowed himself to push all of the color out of his body, he could be so much more creative than a blank slate.

This would be a fun little exercise. He wondered if he could move faster than a paint ball could fly, a lot of people got shot because they weren’t willing to do what it took to dodge the little plastic paint bullet.
Koga walked to the area and listened to the breakdown of the rules, these guys had never done this with mutants or they would have restricted powers or something. They didn’t, he wasn’t going to remind them.

“Hey Darren, are you going to that paintball thing today?”

“Ah, I d-dunno…i-it’s not really m-my thing…” the teenager replied, rubbing the back of his neck. He had heard about the paintball game being held on mansion grounds that afternoon, but in truth, he was not interested. He was the rare fifteen-year-old boy who didn’t want to shoot at things. Besides, it was the middle of the winter. He didn’t want to get splattered and bruised by paint pellets whilst freezing his butt off.

“Oh…really? I was hoping I could get a friend to go with me…” said the skinny lad sitting next to Darren. It seemed impossible, but the boy, Tyler, was actually scrawnier than him, something he thought he’d never see. He didn’t know that Tyler considered them friends, having only known him for a short time and talked to him a few times. That made him feel a little guilty, and he felt compelled to join the paintball match for the sake of friendship. But at the same time…he really didn’t want to…

“…I heard Gina’s going, too.”

“G-Gina?” Darren felt warmth crawl up his neck to his ears and cheeks, and glanced away from his companion, who, incidentally, was grinning like a fox.

“Yeah…in fact, I heard her mention that she’d really like to see you there.” Okay, at that point, he knew Tyler was just trying to convince him to go. But…was she really going? A girl like her, he didn’t think she would be interested in something as savage as paintball. Then again, he didn’t know her as well as he’d like to, and if there was a slim chance she had asked or talked about him…

“What time did you say this paintball game was, again?”

That was why, two hours later, Darren found himself clad in foreign gear, wielding a paintball pistol that looked remarkably like the real thing, shivering as he listened to some instructor finish explaining the safety rules. Gina was nowhere in sight, and Tyler was excitedly examining his gun and chattering about how awesome the match was going to be.

The teenager was not listening to his annoying “friend” anymore. He was searching the grounds for the gargoyle girl, who Tyler swore was going to show up, and sighing every now and then. He could’ve been studying instead of wasting his time shooting paint at people.

They saw everything. Watchful eyes, listening ears. Max saw how the subject lifted the gun, aimed and fired. An action so important, so threatening and was conducted in such a vulgar way. So simple. Something was wrong. They had no time to think. The action was observed from two different points. Both teams reacted instantly recalling years of training.
Andrew was a few steps from the target, in a burst of adrenaline and courage leaped in front of her. Full of drama. He intercepted the shot. Directly into the stomach. He fell on the icy floor with his shoulder, cushioning the fall. Instinctively his hand lowererd to where it should be the wound. Looking for blood. He did not find it. There was no wound. Just paint. Puzzled he looked up trying to find an answer.

The remaining two bodyguards quickly crossed the street with an agility that neither one knew they had. They just had to cross the street. They saw the gun, reacted. But failed to intercept the suspect before he executed the first shot. Expecting the worst, they continued their short drift to prevent another shot.
Andrew saw everything from his comfortable bed of snow, he saw how Max and Peter were already a few feet away from the subject, while pointing directly at his head. "Drop the gun." Max shouted. "On your knees." Peter ordered furiously. Neither one was playing. They were ready to shoot at the smallest denial.

She heard the sound of a falling body in the snow. The sound was muffled. Almost off. She turned around in time to see how Andrew looked incredulous at his hand stained with blood. Surprised, she dropped her cellphone. The girl was trained for these situations, but could not react. She just froze not knowing what to do. Her memory and short training blocked by panic. Responding to her silent question Andrew smiled and said "It's paint." She shook her concerns quickly, trying with all her might to look brave. But the big smile of relief betrayed her, she quietly raised her phone from the snow. Her arm trembled slightly. Celeste tried to hide her small tremors. Recovering her self-control, the little demon gave a few rapid orders to Andrew, so that "undesirable" will not cause more problems that day. Two bodyguards following him all day would be enough to discourage any stupidity on his part. Fortunately Andrew was still alive after such a heroic action. He deserved a raise. She would not admit she was scared. Never. Without thinking, Celeste ran the stretch that separated her from the crowd. After all, she needed the equipment to participate. No more interruptions in her almost perfect plan.
The air was warn near the whole group. It was comforting.The instructors were already helping to "dress up" several students. As one of them was saying, the students would disperse in groups of two persons from the same team. They had a minute to get away before another couple of the opposing team chase after them. Fair enough. That gave her enough time to switch to her combat gear.

Carrick was grinning during the presentation and ‘how-to’s’ with all the equipment, once it was time to pick teams and get started Carrick grinned and picked the blue team and grabbed some of his gear. He didn’t need a gun not yet; he had his own small collection of paintball gear he had been itching to try out. The money that burned a hole in his pocket was well spent as far as Carrick was concerned.

After he strapped some goggles around his head and the vest around his chest Carrick pulled his wings through and looked at his competition briefly and shook his head. It was going to be a mess, and the lack of a ban on mutations just made Carrick laugh and take to the air without grabbing any of the guns there was no need for Carrick to grab any of their guns for he had some of his own stashed away just for occasions such as these and even more back home.

Jumping into the air and looking from Koga, to the blonde and her body guards ‘who brings body guards to a paintball fight?’ thought Carrick as he looked to the next group of mutants, one had rats for hands and the other was firing at the game-instructor. The shots fired only meant one thing to Carrick. With a jump and an opening of his wings Carrick was off towards the tree that singled out his and Kai’s room. His arsenal awaited his return.

Once inside his room Carrick passed the towers of red bull and rummaged under his bed pushing several empty pizza boxes and birdseed bags aside he found what he was looking for. Equipping his extra paintball holsters to his sides Carrick swung a back up gun on his back and exited his room through the window. Opening his wings Carrick flew into the air and gained altitude. It was time for war.

Koga did a quick check of his equipment, firing a round into the grass. the blue paint spilled over the snow covered grass and he grinned as he took off to find a good vantage point, Red team was going down!

He managed to get to a tree and run circles around and up it, from there he broke open a heat pack and slid it into a holder that would keep him conscious for the remainder of the game, he couldn't afford to nap during the game.

His solid black eyes observed the suits. He was glad to see they were now behaving, he didn't like to think about what he might have had to do if they refused to put away their weapons.

No then , he just had to wait for unsuspecting red to come by.

The students were too excited, too intrigued to see what would feel to be hit by a bullet. Rules no longer mattered, everyone was leaving the group on their own under the astonished gaze of the instructor that was trying to understand how his ideal order was not shared by others. With a sigh of resignation he grabbed the remaining equipment and entered it to the security of the mansion. She followed him. And as a lot of the youngest children that could no participate, she began to watch from the inside.
The shooting had already begun. The younger kids ran from one side to another. Without much order, without much strategy. Firing in all directions. Others were already in their bird's nest, firing at discretion trying to avoid disclosing their positions. It was a real battlefield. A great distraction too.
Even his bodyguards were playing, and they were all covered in paint. They were easy targets. Their aim was remarkable but also their size, any shot with low accuracy seemed to be attracted to their expensive suits. They had spots of paint all over their suits, but that did not stop them. It seemed they were really enjoying it.

Apparent the game lacked some fundamental rules... the mutants with the ability to fly were doing it, raining bullets that where really difficult to dodge. Another mutant was leaping over long distances, even when his shots were not as accurate by the movement, the other students also had trouble shooting him.
A mutant in particular caught her attention... he clearly had an advantage over others. Four arms, four guns. His strategy was not one of the best, but he fired continuously. Achieved some hits.

The fierce battle was extremely interesting, worthy of being seen. Although she felt an internal conflict. She wanted to stay and see. It was fun. But at the same time she was extremely afraid. Nobody could deny that it was a strange event that would not repeat again. Never. Fortunately. So many mutants together gave her chills. Still she could not feel comfortable there. Even in the "security" of the mansion. Everything there could be something else than what it looked like. It was like a house of mirrors.
Someone touched her shoulder. Celeste jumped in her place, scared. Fortunately it was just Peter. He was just too bitter to join the game. He carried her bag with all the things she would need. She grabbed it with suspicion. She looked around just to be sure. Nobody was paying attention to her. All the eyes were on the battlefield. It was the right time.


(OOC: Celeste will jump from here to a separate thread on the mansion to avoid delaying the flow of the battle. She will be back to join the match later. Feel free to post in the meanwhile.)