lucky break (hive)

Tim had done it he'd finally caught sight of the red and black armor he'd so desperately looked for. Malharon had needed a new body and had just taken one, a criminal Tim had been following in order to catch and punish. Mal stretched quiet pleased with the body and looked around carefully noting everyone, he had been gone when Tim gained his power of invisibility. Malharon smiled to himself and began humming a tune as he meandered his way back toward the docks, where he could get his boat to go back to the oil rig. Tim was right behind him though moving very carefully so he wouldn't be noisy and blow his cover.

Malharon was checking around everytime he went around a corner making sure his former student wouldn't catch sight of him. Tim smirked at the pointless gesture and followed him all the way into the boat, which shocked him he would have never thought to check the open water.

Mal drove the boat out to the rig and walked id in the base followed very closely by Tim so they would show up the same. Mal walked around the scans as usual hating the technology they tried to use on him. This made Tim's job so much easier, there was no problem following him all the way to his room. Malharon telling everyone who he passed who even looked at him that he was too busy at the moment.

Mal walked in his room and closed the door, he sat back in his chair and sighed content as he prepared to relax. He would never move again, as soon as he leaned back a tiny beam of magic pierced his spine. Mal survived leaving him to just sit there unable to do anything as Tim touched him becoming visible and his features melting into Malharons own even down to his gear, changing magically.

Tim smirked and used the tiny beam he summoned up again to slice Malharon's head off and kill him. Tim hid the body in Malharon's closet and locked the door. He began strolling out toward the exit again locking the bedroom behind him.

The sound of boots tapping against the metal floor echoed through the dorm hallways as Tim left the room in disguise. Galatea Zalkand'r, known better to the students as Ms. Nightfire soon rounded the corner, sword and blaster sheathed at her sides. She was unaware that the Mal she saw before her was infact, not the geniune article, but then again, how would she know that?

The Tamaranean Pirate was kinda bored. Class wasn't in session, so she didn't really have anything to do right now. She was mainly hoping something interesting would happen for her instead her having to go out and start something. From what she could tell, that didn't seem like it was going to be happening soon. Then again, she wasn't aware of the doppleganger before her.

"Hello, she said as she approached Tim/Mal from down the hall, figuring a conversation might help. "How is it going?"

Tim looked over at her and smiled it had been a while since he'd seen Mal so he could only guess he still acted the same. "Stupid kids, can you believe that some still aren't doing homework?! How many punishments do I need to hand out first..." Tim shook his head and asked. "how about you?"

That was it, he wasn't going to put up with this kind of willful incompetence any longer. Pix had stomached a lot from their technophobic teacher Malharon. No ipods in class, no ipods out of class, entropic detention regime, prejudism against Nix (which was really his job). But when the teacher began criticising his essay acumen then that really drew the line.

"A 'B'! What he's done here is misinterpreted what I wrote. The argument I propose ratifies the opening statement, and backs up my claim with solid and reliable sources making heavy use of the impartial, while concluding with supported suggestions of improvements stemming from critical analysis. I don't think 'If I said you were up to my standards I'd be lying' is valid rebuttal."

Essay questions were Hugh's forte. And he'd nailed this one, absolutely hammered it home. So what if it was Defence Against the Dark Arts class? He wanted the grade he'd worked for, dammit! This required a show of defiance beyond simple wand imitations. Hugh needed to be vocal and risk upsetting the one person who had the power to flunk him.

A friend or two to hide behind was essential.

"And of course I'll argue your case too Hydra. I'm sure much of the Harry Potter script had valid point if he'd bothered to read it." At short, the two students encountered Malharon in the hallways, Pix having rampaged across the classroom block already. It was usual for him to work up a frenzy to slights he perceived as a personal insult. And despite Ms Nightfire being present, he abandoned his usual cautiousness around her.

"Teach! Without waking up a wizard and wizarding the essay; explain to me how this could have been better executed!" Interrupting the first exchange he pushed a paper at Malharon's face, "Oh, and Hydra's really unhappy about her mark."

Tim looked confused at the sudden assault then relief rushed through him when this Pix gave him both their names and said. "Hydra, lets take care of yours first. I have a couple books I'll recommend that give a much better history and version of magic than Harry Potter. Look for 'A history of magic part one by Bathilda Bagshot.'" Tim then looked over at Pix and said. "Let me read that essay over again, and tell me why you disagree with the mark I gave you." Tim grabbed the papers away from pix and began reading the essay again.

Galatea was about to give an answer when she heard voices and footsteps coming from down the hall. She was about to give her negative opinions on the student body...but doing so right in front of said students faces wasn't exactly in good taste. Sure, talking about some one behind their back was bad, but talking to someone else about them was worse. Saying it right in front of them isn't very pleasant either.

"You two should be thankful I do not assign essays in my class," she said to Pix and Hydra with a rather disapproving expression. "I would not be a lenient as Malharon is with regrading things...though, I don't quite know what sort of essays you would even right for my class. But that is not the point.

"Don't give us that, we have a right to- wait, what?" Pix surrendered the papers meekly as his ranting was forestalled. Malharon was being... agreeable? In the time he had known the old wizard, Pix had never gotten him to admit an error. If the man was wrong he'd merely dismiss the subject. Was he actually giving his paper a serious reassessment?

This peculiarity was put on hold for a moment. Instead Pix flinched at the sound of Ms. Nightfire's voice. Hugh realised that he'd been hoping for her to remain aloof from this conversation. If anybody had an excuse to punish him for the smallest of slights, it was her, "Wouldn't expect you to, Ms." ( ^_^; ) Though truth be told, he'd have demanded a regrade on obstacle courses as well if she wasn't the one teaching.

A stray thought gave him pause, as Hugh suddenly formed a frown, "Was Teach joking just now? Because I think he just told you to read a book by a fictional author." Unless J. K. Rowling had taken the name from a real occult author,"Random time to develop a sense of humour on us."

Tim looked over the papers and said seriously looking concerned. "Hugh, Mia, I think that the marks would be better discussed in the classroom. How about we arrange to have a meeting about this in the morning to give me a chance to sleep on it." Tim offered the papers back and looked over at Galatea and said seriously. "Come on half of these lessons are to get them to stand up to the system out there. You have to admire when someone takes these hidden lessons to heart." He had broken into a smile at the last bit and looked around the halls, he then looked back to Mia and Hugh as though waiting to hear what they though of the meeting.

While Hydra also had that pleasantly surprised look on her expression, she mustn't have felt as strongly about the character inconsistencies as Hugh, for she felt no need to comment on the suggestion of a fictional author. Pix didn't like people casting him as a paranoid, so he didn't press her for an answer. Yet a gut instinct made him ever more attentive when Malharon had finished his revaluation. Intuition sang like a canary, and Pix found himself immediately opposed to the entirely reasonable suggestion.

“Oh no you don't. You can't 'um' and 'ah' over our work and then fob us off like that.” They had him cornered now, so no matter how peculiar he was acting, a result would be obtained. And at the same time they might be able to discover why Malharon was so out of sorts. Maybe he was hungover. Or still drunk. Did he remember where his classroom was?

In light of this thought, Hugh cleared his throat and continued with a more calm and agreeable tact, “Teach, if you prefer to be at a desk, we can respect that. Just lead the way to your office and we'll get this sorted now.”

The unusual cheer that had been so apparent in Malharon suddenly vanished. His face twisted into an angry scowl. He rounded on Pix and stepped toward him in his usual attempt to intimidate, not that his mace decreased that feeling. Mal ran his fingers over the handle and tapped his foot impatiently clearly trying to calm himself.

The longer he tried the more obvious the irritation became, when he finally spoke his voice was near a whisper. "I'm sorry did someone change our ranks around here? Because I do believe I said that we'll deal with it later. You will await our meeting that may or may not happen now. Be in my office in two days or I'll regrade it alone harsher than the first time." He stared at Pix, Tim used the mask to give the appearance of Mal's ocular power even though it wasn't legitamate. The eyes shifted to black with a red iris and a white pupil. He then said louder and clearly. "Have I made myself perfectly clear on this?!"

((OOC: Sorry. Just trying to keep us moseying))

"Perfectly clear. Glad to know you made no mistakes there Teach." Hugh was unnerved by the eyes. That certainly seemed like a genuine magical conduit. His gut feeling was gut retching right now. However, for what he was about to do, he could always preach 'better safe than sorry' later, "You don't have an office. Mal kept everything in his room. That's why we're here."

Morphing into his meta-human body, Pix took a defensive stance (<_<). Hopefully the other two would catch on fast, "Ms. Nightfire, I'd suggest activating H.I.V.E. protocol one-zero-five and screening all active personnel immediately." Now for the love of all, please don't let him have to use Hydra as a scapegoat

Galatea started noticing something was up, too. Between the sudden mood shifts and paradoxes, something seemed fishy...and it wasn't Hydra this time. While she didn't know Mal personally, the pirate knew him well enough to realize that something was off here.

"I think you may be onto something, Pix," Galatea said, looking at him from the corner of her bad eye to keep tabs on "Mal". "But a 1-0-5? That is a bit excessive. We do not have the whole staff to worry about..."

With a flash, Galatea's cutlass was drawn and pointed at Mal's neck. Ms. Nightfire had a rather...unnerving smile on her lips as she made eye contact with Malharon.

"...It is just this one," She said, finishing her sentence. "If I were you, whoever you really are, I would start explaining."

((Sorry about the laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaateness. Had a trip, and kinda forgot about this....))