>"Yeah, does this fighting style have a name or did you make it yourself? Cause I don't think I've ever seen anybody use it."

"It is something that I put together a while ago. I tweak it slightly to suit the student. It is a good well rounded style blending offence and defence, I don't believe I ever made a name for it. I also decided to teach you this style to counter any fear of daggers that you might develop. Often times when someone has been almost mortally wounded by a weapon they develop a fear of it. Next time someone comes at you with a dagger it is such a fimiliar weapon that you have the tactical advantage." What Hades did not mention was that he had also chosen it because he felt that the style suited Alex's nature and style of movement.

>"Also, what do I do if the attacker has a weapon with a longer reach or a gun?"

"Then you either negate his advantage by moving out of range, taking cover and using your power retreat, or you close the distance to get within the gun's range of efficacy. There is also the option of throwing your dagger but that lesson will come after you have passed your first two exams. For now I would advise taking cover and either retreating or forcing him to come to you. You could also throw up a screen of insects, he cannot shoot what he cannot see."

Hades was pleased, Alex was a good student, he learnt fast and asked good questions. He would be ready for the exams and then, after he passed them..... He would have many choices as to what he wanted to learn next. This bird creature though was an unknown. From what he could gather between the squawks and trills and chirps, the kid would enthusiastically get the signatures, Great. From what he could gather the boy either had a random power every day or perhaps grabbed it off others. That could be very...interesting, Hades interest was peaked.

"So does your power change randomly, or do you copy it off others? Also I will need to see you in your natural form. I need to see how you move. I teach each student basic defense suited to their nature and movement. If you are still interested then you are welcome to join." He would find out how dedicated and good this student was in time. Hades was a patient man. At the boy's last question, Hades smiled. "No, I will not test you now, I will teach you a set of self defense moves and train you how to use them, I will then test you on them. If you pass the two exams then you may ask and pick an advanced skill that you wish to learn." He turned to Alex. "Alex, there are probably a few more applications that I want to teach you and then when you are ready you may sit your exam. The first part is sparring against me, I will only use what I have taught you. To pass you must survive 1 minute with no yield. The second test is one of application, the pass condition will be similar but I will choose my weapon and style. I could very well choose a paintball gun and see how you applied my advice, or it could be anything from a morning star to just my fists. Any other questions? If not that will be all for today."

Alex listened to Hades talk about the fighting style and what to do in case someone had a distance advantage on him. It was interesting advice, pretty much what he had expected. Though he was hesitant to use his insects or any other construct to screen him. They would have to be way more sturdy than what he was making them now. But that was a matter of figuring out how to change the material to something tougher perhaps or maybe simply to deflect objects. But bullets were small and no matter how tough his creations they could always go through his constructs to him.

He would have to think on it more, study and practice. It was something to take his mind off things, gave him a goal to focus on.

Glancing over at the other student when Hades addressed him, Alex couldn't help but feel a twinge of something. Jealousy...no, that was too quick for how long he had known the man and the other boy had only just appeared. The only other word he could put to the emotion was maybe territorial. He tried to remain outwardly neutral. The other student wasn't a threat and it wasn't like Hades was going to stop teaching him if he got other students. So why-?

"Alex, there are probably a few more applications that I want to teach you and then when you are ready you may sit your exam. The first part is sparring against me, I will only use what I have taught you. To pass you must survive 1 minute with no yield. The second test is one of application, the pass condition will be similar but I will choose my weapon and style. I could very well choose a paintball gun and see how you applied my advice, or it could be anything from a morning star to just my fists. Any other questions? If not that will be all for today."

He blinked up at Hades as all the information was laid on him. The tests sounded tough, given that he had never beaten Hades in a fight. But he easily recognized that the tests weren't about beating the man, just simply surviving long enough. Possibly because Hades was incredibly powerful in ways he probably didn't know. He didn't know how he knew, he just knew. The man's incredible age probably didn't hurt in reinforcing that idea.

"When will these tests happen? I feel like we just got started." It couldn't have been that long since they had started.

>"So does your power change randomly, or do you copy it off others?"

Jude ruffled and smoothed his feathers. Why this guy bothered him so much, he couldn't pin down exactly. Not until he interacted with him more. Jude had all the respect in the world for what he'd seen of his expertise, though.

"Copy. Touch copy." It was inelegant to explain things in one to three syllables at a time, but that was what he could manage. Enunciating through a beak was hard enough.

> "Also I will need to see you in your natural form. I need to see how you move. I teach each student basic defense suited to their nature and movement."

"Nature change. Train all nature. No point train only one-haha."

How could he explain this? No. The more he tried to talk, the worse the kookaburra laughter crept into his speech. The little kid he’d copied was equally difficult to understand, but he’d assumed that was because he was like 4. Jude made a mental note to go play with the kookaburra kid and let him know he understood now.

As for this whole fighting thing? “Interested,” Jude maintained. “Teach.”

>"When will these tests happen? I feel like we just got started."
"True, it was not too long ago that you started learning but you are a fast learner. To answer your question the tests will happen when I feel that you are ready and you feel like you are up to the challenge. Although until you past these tests I will not teach you any additional styles or weapons."

Hades/Victor turned to the bird/boy. From what he was saying the boy could copy powers by touch, interesting, that could be a great advantage. He would need to think of a suitable style. He had one in mind already. One that might suit the boy. After he, like Alex passed his first tests he had a much more interesting and challenging style in mind but that would be for later. He turned to both of them and said. "That will be all for today. Alex next lesson is recovery move training." Turning to the bird boy he said "Next class in on Thursday and will be in the gym. If you still want to learn come with loose
comfortable clothing and a signed form."

*******Two days later******
Hades awaited the arrival of his students. For this class he had requisitioned a corner of the gym. There were some thin mats laid out on the floor. There was a sparring corner with wooden dummies of to the side and stacks of blue crash mats of varying thickness. Hades had dimmed the lighting in the sparring corner so that it was mostly in shadows. Off to the other side of the gym the doors to the outside were closed, however they must have been open as evidenced by a pile of leaves that had been swept up and were waiting to be taken away. The rest of the gym was being used by around two classes of students of varying ages doing P.E. While he waited for his students Hades decided to warm up by doing stealth attacks. In the sparring corner he would move from shadow to shadow. He was at home in the shadows, that was one of the first skills he had mastered all those years ago, how to be invisible while moving in the shadows. On the wall there was a hit counter. To the casual observer it would seem that at random intervals the counter suddenly jumped as the system registered a hit on one of the dummies. Hades finished his warm up as he saw his students arrive. He emerged from the shadows and waited for them by the mats.

Alex was relieved that the tests wouldn't be coming soon. He had time to really get into it before they took that step. In fact he had to say when he was ready, which was fair enough for him given everything that was going on right now. Really, training with Hades was more to blow off steam and build confidence than anything. So he could do without any extra styles or weapons.

When all was said and done, he left to go clean up and relax. Hopefully the bruises wouldn't last too long on him.

-----------Two days later-----------

Alex arrived at the gym, wearing the padding Hades had given him. It was pretty comfortable and flexible. The beating he had received on Tuesday thankfully didn't leave any lasting marks. Hopefully the new train clothes would protect him from further damage.

He walked over to the shadowed corner and for a moment it didn't seem like Hades had arrived yet. But just as soon as he was about to search for the man he slipped out of the shadows, with such frightening ease you would think he had been part of them. He wondered, if momentarily, if he'd ever get that cool. It was certainly a hope he could aim for.

"Hey, Ha-Mr.Wong. Are we going to be fighting dummies today?" That'd be nice, at least a dummy wouldn't throw him to the ground like Hades most certainly would. Or perhaps they were for the other boy to practice on while he continued to spar with Hades.

Jude did not have spiffy new training gear, but he did have a signature and basketball shorts that moved pretty well. He was also short a few feathers from last time. No way was he going to run into kookaburra kid again when the teacher said he should come in his own body, even if he wanted to learn it all. He had to start somewhere.

The Frenchman was only a step behind Alex when they entered the gym.

And only a step away from embarrassing himself thoroughly when Ha-Mr. Wong oozed out of the shadows like a serial killer stalker. He hadn't noticed that he had a few inches on the other teen until he shot the guy a look for the name fumble. These two had pre-Mansion experience together. Jude wasn't going to dig. Openly.

He brandished his paper at the Wong.

"I'm Jude Csendes minus ze feathers. No physical manifestation power today as suggested." He preferred not to take on those kinds of powers anyway, in all honesty. But more than that, he already had a healthy respect for anyone that could shadow ooze.

Hades/ Victor, seeing that both of his students had arrived walked forward to meet them. He first turned to Victor with almost a hint of a smile. "No Alex, you will be sparring with things that are rather ...alive and kicking today. Why don't you start warming up while I get Jude started". To say that Hades was not looking forward to... well testing Alex's grasp of recovery move by repeatedly landing him on his back side, and front side and all sides would not be entirely true. He had begun to enjoy training Alex. At times he found him self feeling almost... protective of him. Hades had no plan to train Alex as an assassin. That would require a darkness of heart that Alex did not possess. No, Hades was seeking to equip Alex, to set him up so that he could be, well potentially a hero. He had it in him, but that would be Alex's choice. As for Jude, well he would see what drove him, that would determine how much he would learn and how far he would go.

He turned to Jude and dutifully took the brandished paper. Sometime he wished that He and Alex could be back in the woods, where Hades could go all out with his training, instead of.... well.....

"Right, Jude I am going to teach you a different martial arts form that what I have been teaching Alex, at some point the two of you will switch but I feel that this style might suit you more at first." Having said that he began to teach Jude the forms. This was a form that spent half its time lying on the ground rolling around agilely. Firstly most people never expect to be attacked from such a low level, secondly when on the ground, any kicks were low kicks which meant speed but pushing off the ground meant strength and stability. It was a style suited for someone with speed and agility. If anything, Jude appeared a quick study and they soon progressed to a point where he remembered enough to run through the first part of the moves. Hades was just turning to begin sparring with Alex when the door opened and a group of men moved in. Something in their posture, the way they held themselves, the bags they carried led Hades to suspect that they were more than they appeared to be. He had gotten some memo about a visit from the education board doing a tour of the school but these were no inspectors. He motioned for Jude and Alex to follow him behind a pile of crash mats.

Victor turned to Alex and handed him his dagger. "Alex, regardless what happens, don't stand up and give yourself away. Also If possible I will need a distraction in... say two minutes. Stay in cover." He turned to Jude. "You also stay in cover, and try to round up the rest of the kids and get them to safety. I could be jumping at shadows but better safe than sorry..."

His words were cut short as a scream pierced the air. The double doors to the gym were now barred and the group of "inspectors" were pulling out pistols and shotguns. The scream was from the guide who had just been knocked unconscious.

"Alex the murderer! We know you are here. Go easy on yourself and come out now, nobody will get hurt...."

"No Alex, you will be sparring with things that are rather ...alive and kicking today. Why don't you start warming up while I get Jude started."

Alive and kicking probably meant that he'd be going up against Hades again. He wasn't sure how being thrown on his backside again and again was supposed to teach him to define himself. But he wasn't about to complain, he trusted that the man had some sort of point to all this. That it was probably a more direct approach to training than fighting against a dummy or going through the motions.

So he merely nodded and went about his stretching while the older man assisted Jude. The other teen wasn't an addition he expected and he was sure Hades didn't appreciate the intrusion. However, in order to keep up appearances Jude was allowed. Plus, Alex liked the idea of sharing this class with someone else. Hades was great sure, but the man was hardly his age and it wasn't like they hung out or anything. Not yet anyway.

Just as he had finished warming up, with Hades ready to spar him, strange men with duffle bags full of guns came into the gym. Before he knew it, he was ducking behind a pile of crash mats with Jude and Hades, a blade put into his hand.

"Alex, regardless what happens, don't stand up and give yourself away. Also If possible I will need a distraction in... say two minutes. Stay in cover." He turned to Jude. "You also stay in cover, and try to round up the rest of the kids and get them to safety. I could be jumping at shadows but better safe than sorry..."

He barely paid attention when he heard the scream, followed by the frightened scrambling of children and teacher attempting to put distance between them and the gunmen. He peeked between the two stacks of mats, breath halted, terrified. These men were looking for him.

"Alex the murderer!"

Oh god, there was already a body on the ground...

"We know you are here."

From this his position he couldn't see if they were alive. He hadn't heard a gun shot though. The gunmen were rounding on the group of children, weapons at the ready.

"Go easy on yourself and come out now,"

His grip tightened on the blade, what should he do?! What should he do?!

"nobody will get hurt...."

He looked at Hades, knowing the man had just told him to stay hidden. But could he really do that when people were in danger. They were here for him, nobody should be getting hurt for him, he wasn't worth their lives. He looked back between the mats, it would only be a matter of time before they were found.

He set down the knife, "Alright, I'm coming out, just don't shoot." Slowly he rose from his hiding spot, hands raised in surrender. He approached cautiously. He might have been told to hide, but what better distraction than giving the men exactly what they wanted.

Jude watched as Hades got his first student started. He hoped that someday he could be at that level, but realistically the teen knew that day was still far off. Alex moved in a way that spoke of experience. It made him seem grown up and really competent. Despite the childhood Jude had, the Frenchman had been sheltered by Ghost and the Mansion staff ever since his arrival in America. He was sensing how much that put him behind combat-wise.

> "Right, Jude..."

The Wong had Jude's full attention. He spent more time on groundwork than he'd been expecting. It made for some pretty dope break dancing-like action and Jude already had some interest in that vein. They'd just gotten to the point where Jude had fewer questions and more of a need to keep at it so the Wong stepped away.

Not even one full practice cycle later, Jude caught a motion from the seifu and joined the other student alongside the teacher. He didn't have an extra sensory powers since Wong had made that seem like a bad idea, and he'd been focusing pretty hard on his break dancing so the intruders were a complete shock to him.

The Frenchman's fists balled and he nodded at Wong's instruction. Yes. He could herd the others away. In X-men missions, as a junior on the team that kind of thing was often left to him. He assumed that Alex and Wong with their superior training and, he assumed, superior mutations would be handling the bulk of the take down.

So he was surprised again when Alex set the knife down and did exactly what the Wong said not to do.

"Are you crazy?" He hissed, but Alex would not be stopped. He had the face of someone with conscience. Jude locked eyes with Mr. Wong for half a heartbeat. Well... if that's how this was going to go...

Jude took the knife in his hand and let his human shifting powers kick in. Did he know what to do with a knife? No. But Alex would have.

> "Alright, I'm coming out, just don't shoot."

"Don't!" Alex's voice sounded strange in Jude's mouth, but then when he had taken his face, that was something that made sense as a package deal. He spoke loud enough to easily be overheard, but soft and urgent enough to let Alex know he actually meant it. "Don't do this, Jude. Don't sacrifice yourself for me." Subtext: I'm doing this for you, moron. Don't waste this opportunity.

Jude also held up his hands, but he visibly let the knife fall from his hand and onto the crash mat in front of Alex.

"It's me. I'm coming out now. Don't hurt anybody else."

Jude was not a psychic, but he thought really, really hard just in case the teacher was. He certainly moved as if he'd had foreknowledge of his enemy's intentions.

I'm trusting you to do your job, Wong.

Alex looked at him, then... did the most idiotic thing he could do. Obeyed them. Could he not see that they intended to shoot him. That first gun shot would shock the younger mutants in the room who would start screaming. This would aggravate the men already on an Adrenalin rush and what would result would be a massacre of most of the people in the gym. Not only was Alex endangering his life but also the lives of many others. As soon as Alex stepped out, Hades was already on the move, flowing around, to come at the rearmost gunman.

As he moved towards his unsuspecting target, his new student, Jude morphed? into a facsimile of Alex. This was interesting. Hades mind at this point had gone into combat and analysis mode. He would steer away from lethal killing moves. He was supposed to be a teacher after all but he also limited himself to stay in character. A martial arts master should be more than enough to take out these people. To say that the gunmen were confused would be an understatement. It was in this very moment of confusion that Hades struck. Suddenly he was among them.

The rear most gunman fist knew something was wrong when a hand suddenly appeared from the shadows and ripped the top slide of his pistol, the follow up elbow to the throat removed all other thoughts from his mind aside from the need to breathe. In this uncoordinated state he was shoved into the person in front of him who was trying to swing his shotgun to bear. Foolish man, in such a close quarter battle guns are more a liability that a help. Hades was inside their range of efficacy, they were effectively fighting with a handicap. The second gunman was just shoving the man aside when Hades performed a textbook move on him. Well the same textbook that he had been teaching Alex from. It did not matter that Hades had no dagger in his hand, he improvised, the gun slide did well enough. With a bellow the second gunman dropped the shotgun to clutch at his leg and the shiny piece of metal that was now sprouting from it. Another mistake the gunmen made was not spreading out more, they were still slightly spooked by the idea of so many mutants around so instinctively they had closed ranks. When dealing with an unarmed attacker in close quarter combat however this was another handicap.

All was going well until a gun went off. It was by accident, it hurt no one, a gun with a sensitive trigger went off as it was hitting the floor, the bullet burying itself in the ceiling. But with so many people on edge, it spooked Susan. There was nothing particularly amazing about Susan at first glance. She was not the brightest in the class, nor the most beautiful. But she was a rather high class level of mutant, her power was, unfortunately for many in the room, sonic scream. One minute Hades was working his way though the gunmen, disarming them, incapacitating them, using many of the moves that the had been teaching Alex and Jude, the next minute He and everyone else in the room were assaulted by a seemingly solid wall of sound. Hades staggered, his senses bombarded, almost all of the gunmen did too. Almost all.

Jack was an army veteran. Ex-artillery spotter to be precise. His hearing had been irreparably damaged when an artillery shell landed short. He was older that most of the group. The group that had come to serve justice because something the law moved too slow. The law fell short. You can take a man out of the military, you cannot take the military out of a man as the saying goes. He swore an oath to defend his country from threats both at home and abroad. He had never come to terms with the idea of mutants being one of "us". The media had not helped this either, more often than not portraying the damage caused by mutants and the death and destruction that they caused. He could barely stomach the X-men worked with the police force. He would protect his country and his family and friends if he had to kill the threats (mutants) one at a time, and all who supported them (traitors).

When the wave of sound hit the others, Jack was not phased. It sounded no louder than the artillery strikes that he used to call down. When the others staggered, dropped their weapons and covered their ears, he calmly pulled out his sawed-off double barrel and aimed it at the attacker.

Hades came to just in time to see a barrel swing in his direction. Inwardly he cursed, he was off balance, this was going to hurt. He turned his face and shielded himself with his hands.

Both triggers clicked together, both barrels going off merged into one sound. BOOM!

Everything happened so quickly. One minute he’s moving to stand, the next Jude is shifting into him and standing as well, dropping the knife in front of him. Hades has disappeared and it wasn't long before the man made himself known. The rapid harsh blows the man laid upon the attackers easily dispatch most of them. Honestly Alex was at a shocked standstill, he didn't know what to do. He couldn't move like Hades, a literal shadow from nowhere. He'd probably only get in the way or worse get caught and give the men a hostage.

He was waiting for an opening to help when the gun went off, much louder in the gym than he had ever heard one outside. Then the little girl's sonic scream, loud enough to send pretty much everyone to their knees. Alex did what he could on instinct, drawing from the piles of debris Hades had brought for his training, and making a swarm of small birds thick enough to protect his trainer. He knew on some base level that one of the men could take advantage of the momentary distraction and harm him.

He was right, he couldn't hear it, but he certainly felt it. Blazing heat cutting through fragile flesh, bones, and feathers. At least three of the swarm took the blow to absorb it's full momentum at such a close range before he cut connection with those three and let them return to dust. The rest of the swarm moved to surround the attacker, keeping him trapped in relatively small tornado of wings and chirping.

It was the best he could do at the moment, he didn't want to use the knife just yet. Not while Hades could still have a good handle on things.

Yes! The confusion two Alexs (Alex-i?) inspired, gave seifu enough time to slip into their back line. Perfect. Jude abandoned all pretense and let the heavy hitters do their thing. Wong had given him a task and he fully intended to fulfill that charge of clearing out the kids.

The not-currently-a-Frenchman shuffled around behind the real Alex and pulled a kid frozen with his mouth agape by the arm until the two of them were in a crouch. The kid looked to be in middle school, but in his X-training Jude had learned a bit about panic psychology. Everyone did better when they had a specific task, something to focus on besides doom and gloom.

"Stay low and go out the back door." Alex!Jude pointed to the doorway furthest from the gunmen. "Run until you find an adult you know." Alex!Jude crouched low and tugged on a couple more shirts, arms, and legs until he had a bigger group to repeat his instructions to. The carnage was bad, the smell hit Jude hard crouched low as he was. The sights left a lot of them wild-eyed. This was supposed to be a safe place. There wasn't supposed to be blood on the Mansion's gym floor, especially not the blood of their friends.

Jude was reaching out to some of the last of the rubbernecking students when another weapon discharged. Susan belted out a high F and suddenly Jude didn't have to worry about asking everyone to get low. They were all too vertigo-ed to do much else.

The X-in-training grit his teeth and grabbed Susan with one arm around the waist and the other around her mouth. He pulling her back suddenly and cut off her scream just in time for another, louder weapon to bellow it's fire through the sudden quiet of the gym.

Still dizzy, Jude managed to tug the girl behind a stack of soft fall mats, which wasn't very good cover. He grunted as she practiced some mean self-defense at his expense: elbow to the ribs, stomping at his feet, and throwing her weight around.

"Sus- Susan! Shhh-ugh!" Another rib shot meant he lost control of her mouth. Jude tripped over himself to get out an explanation before she started screaming again. "It's-" He panted. "just me." Jude!Alex grabbed his ribs and let himself sink to his knees. "I'm a... student."

"Shh!" She shushed him and twisted to peer back to the action, over the mats.

Women. Jude let his head fall back against the mats behind him while he worked to regain his breath. Most of the other kids had already made a break for the door while the bad guys were distracted. He'd mostly done his part.

As the man's hand tightened on the trigger Hades had the presence of mind to phase. Even so he was a little late. A few pellets had just broken his skin and were happily on their way to his internal organs when he phased. In his phased state, his senses heightened. He saw the wall of feathers materialize in front of him just in time to take the brunt of the blast. While phased bullets could not hurt him but the shock wave still knock him back to some degree. He was conscious not to phase for very long, just enough to evade most of the damage but not long enough to be seen. If some observant soul was watching closely they might catch a flash of slightly luminescent green but nothing more.

Once again still recovering from the vertigo, Hades slightly misjudged his de-phasing time. He turned corporal just in time for the remainders of the pellets to break his skin on their way out of his body, leaving him with entry and exit woulds that were only skin deep. A quick palm slap on the floor and he was back in stance, the cloud of feathers dissipated in time to reveal a very very angry Hades.

The safeties came off. Hades... saw red. He was still conscious that he was in a school so no killing, but aside from that anything else, everything else was fair game..

Hades moved, it might be more accurate to say he flowed with almost inhuman grace. Dispatching each attacker with one or two strikes, not waiting for the first to fall before attacking, blocking and attacking simultaneously, Hades swept through them. Perhaps the most chilling part of the whole picture, aside from the sounds of course, was that through all of this, Hades expression never changed, it was a blank expressionless mask, with only his green eyes blazing with fury to express his emotion. This was his war mask. Shoulders, hips and joints were dislocated, elbows and knees cracked and snapped, shins and arms broken, concussions dealt, ribs fractured, broken then used to puncture internal organs... The list went on.

Jack was annoyed but not disappointed when he saw birds suddenly come to shield this man. They were in a mutant school after all, these things were to be expected. Holding the gun in one hand he calmly reached for a fragmentation grenade. Bullets this mutant could perhaps block, but explosives? Well there were an entirely different matter. He was halfway to pulling the in with his teeth when there was a blur of movement and suddenly Jack had trouble breathing. The next he knew someones shoulder was against his throat and and arm was around his neck. Suddenly the world turned upside down as his back his the floor... hard. He involuntary let go of both the gun and the grenade. Something was wrong with his back. He faded in and out of consciousness as he watched the rest of his team dispatched by the attacker. Did mutants now have special forces protecting them?

The last attacker fell to reveal Hades with his hands poised to strike, his breathing even, his stance solid. After a second he relaxed a fraction, stood straighter and went off to find his students.

It was over, finally over. The whole event probably only took fifteen minuets at best but it felt like a life time. But the gunmen were down and everyone was safe. Alex let go a breath he didn't know he had been holding in, letting the bird constructs go as well. Thick dust settled around the group, a marker for the villains in this incident. He could feel fear flow out and anger take it's place, numb and low burning.

He didn't really think as he grabbed his knife off the crash mat and walked toward the attackers. He didn't know what he was going to do. He just knew he wanted answers, he wanted to know, "Why?" His voice held more anger than he was expecting, the echo bouncing around the now quiet gym. The leader was semi-conscious, in obvious pain. He could hear the purr in the back of his mind, begging to dig claws in.

He ignored it, ignored the constructs that surged forward to voice their opinion. They've been more vocal as of late, his own jury growing in his brain. "Why would you involve innocent people? Children? They had nothing to do with this, they have nothing to do with me!" His shouting seemed lost on the gunman, a frustrating fact. His grip tightened on the knife, unsure of what he wanted to do. To listen to his better demons or prove them right, prove what kind of monster he was?

"Dude." Susan nudged Alex!Jude with her foot. "Your clone is going bonkers."

Well, yes, Jude had heard the shouting too. He'd honestly been hoping the whole thing was done once he'd heard the last series of meaty thumps. He'd also really been hoping seifu wasn't one of those thumps, but with the way that Alex!Alex was off the rails, Jude didn't have a whole lot of hope.

"Unless you're the clone." Susan eyed Jude who smiled his blandest, most Alex smile as he got to his feet and joined the rubbernecking.

"This is not ze clone you're looking for."

And then a sigh when real Alex seemed to leverage the knife like he was going to use it. Time to go.

Alex!Jude stepped out from behind the mats and walked calmly into Alex's range of vision. He had to get closer than Jude would have liked before the kid seemed to notice him. Alex seemed pretty intent on getting his answers.

"I don't want this blood on my hands." Jude said the words in Alex's voice, as if he had a choice to sound like anyone else at this point. Jude showed Alex his own empty hands. He was Alex's conscience come to life. "He isn't worth it, man."