Academy (Possible RWBY fanfiction? Not sure yet.)

-Kota-

“Aagh!” Kota cried as he was sent flailing backwards through the air. On either side of him, Tyler and Paul were also sent flying. As he hit the ground, Kota went into a roll and came up on his knees, slapping the ground in the process. A glowing rune appeared around his hand and sent pillars of earth jutting in every direction at Dreicht. Meanwhile, Tyler and Paul were both in the process of recovering. “Come one slowpokes, I don’t wanna fail this test, don’t drag me down with you!”
    “Oi..” Tyler groaned. Their team had just recently been assembled, and none of them really liked each-other. He got to his feet and black flames licked at his sleeves. In a moment, his hands were surrounded by orbs of deadly fire. He hurled them at Dreicht and followed up with a stream of flames.
    “Heheh!” Paul grinned. “If you think I’ll drag you down, you better check again because I’m just getting started!” He started working up a storm in his palms, electricity running down his arms and dripping off like water. He hurled the maelstrom at Dreicht who took out a simple throwing knife, and whipped it towards the storm, conducting the electricity and sending it back at Paul, who dived behind the remnants of an old building. Meanwhile, Kota held up his hand straight in front of him and a glowing rune appeared around his hand. The rune carved into his iris activated and a display winked into existence in his mind. He targeted Dreicht and a red marker indicated he was locked on and ready to fire.
“Strident Burst!” The rune started glowing even brighter and Kota fired, releasing 6 blue-white bolts of energy that streaked through the air, racing towards Dreicht, who created a barrier out of pure energy and absorbed the bolts. Dreicht shifted his hands slightly, and the barrier became a lance of volatile energy, which he flung at Tyler, who just barely created a wall of fire that consumed the energy. Tyler swung his arms and the flames which had absorbed the energy shot towards Dreicht scorching the earth as they went.
    “Time! Cease your attacks please, gentlemen.” The flames faded away and Kota’s eye dimmed, as the rune deactivated. Sparks flew from Paul’s fingertips but he let them fizzle and pop. “Well, boys. Once again you’ve failed to learn what you’re missing. You understand that if you do so again, it will be for the last time, don’t you?” None of them said anything. Kota stared right at Dreicht, irritated once again that none of their attacks had gone through. Tyler glanced to the left, appearing carefree but seething inside. Paul just grinned, his normal trickster self. “Well then. I’ll be taking my leave. I urge each of you to think hard about today’s test, about what you three are missing, and most importantly, this. Why are you here? Some of the kids at this academy are here because they want fame, some are here because they want money. But few are here because they want to make a difference, and even fewer actually do. Which are you?” With those words, Dreicht picked up his coat, threw it on, and walked leisurely off, hands stuffed in his pockets.
    “Urgh. That guy gets on my nerves, seriously! This is our second time facing him and yet we could do nothing.” Kota ground out through gritted teeth. He wheeled on Paul and Tyler. “And you two! Why the hell didn’t you back me up? If you’d just given me one opening I could have nailed him!” Tyler’s eyes flashed and he stepped closer
    “Don’t you give me that. If you had hit him with that first attack I could easily have taken him down with my flames.”
    “Yeah? I guess we’ll see, next time then, won’t we?” Kota activated the two runes on both his feet. On the balls of his feet were a simple gravity repulsion rune that allowed him to float about 5cm off the ground, and on the heels were more powerful repulsion runes that allowed him to propel himself at great speeds. He set off for the dorms, leaving Tyler and Paul at the training grounds, all three of them pondering Dreicht’s words.

-Later that night-

-Tyler-

Tyler’s eyes flew open, flitting around. Something wasn’t right. He couldn’t place it, something was off. He wasn’t sure whether something smelled funny, or if he heard something strange, but he felt a strange sensation, like a prickling at the back of his neck. He got out of bed and pulled on his shirt and hoodie. He opened the door to his room and slowly peered out, glancing left and right, confirming that no one was nearby. For some reason Kota’s door was ajar. Tyler crept into the hallway and slowly made his way to Kota’s room. As he neared, he knew for sure something was definitely wrong. Kota, being a Runic magic user, always had runic locks placed on his door, to ensure his privacy. They were deactivated, and Kota was nowhere to be seen.
    “Where could he-- damn it” Tyler heard a noise from the forest nearby their dorm. “Not good, where the hell is he? If that was him out there he’s screwed.” Students were normally not allowed into the forest without accompaniment by an Instructor at the school, and especially not at night. This was because the forest was home to a wide assortment of deadly creatures. “Man, what the hell did he do?” Tyler hurried as silently as he could down the hall to Paul’s room. He opened the door without thinking and froze, as Paul’s hand moved in a blur and stopped an inch from his throat, coursing with raw electricity.
    “Oh, it’s you. What the hell do you want? It’s past curfew.” Paul’s hand fell to his side as he stood up.
    “It’s Kota. I sensed something and woke up, his room is empty and his security runes were deactivated. I heard something out in the forest.”
    “Guuuuhh. Do we have to?” Paul groaned. Tyler stared at him silently “I guess we do, don’t we.”
    “I don’t want to any more than you do.” Paul crossed the room and put his shirt on, throwing his leather jacket over it.
    “Let’s go.” He said, pushing past Tyler and placing a hand on the window. There was a flash, and a perfect circle appeared in the glass as he cut the glass with electricity. He caught the circle and placed it on the floor below. “After you.” Tyler did a perfect dive out the window and cushioned his impact using fire to provide upward thrust. Paul clambered out the window and then lept off the building backwards, throwing a hand out to catch the flagpole outside the window, and slid down it, spinning around it and releasing electricity as he went in order to create a magnetic force and slow his descent.
    “Always gotta be fancy, huh?” Tyler grinned slightly. They started for the forest, glancing around them as they went, making sure no one or no thing was watching them.


-slightly earlier-

-Kota-

Kota was suddenly awake, a disturbance shaking him from his sleep. Always cautious, Kota had placed a few surveillance runes around the perimeter of the dorm area, and in the forest nearby. One of them had been set off. He threw on his black shirt and disabled the runic locks that ran up his door frame and stole silently into the hallway. He tapped a rune carved into his arm and held it to the window. It became temporarily fluid and he slipped through it, landing on the ground and cushioning his impact with the runes on his heels. He activated the rune carved into his iris and scanned the area for anybody watching him, but there was no one. He activated the pairs of runes engraved on his feet and moved towards the forest as silently and quickly as he could, darting from cover to cover making sure he wasn’t seen. He came to the edge of the forest and, glancing around, slipped inside. He had no trouble seen as the runes he had carved around his irises enhanced his vision. He moved forward slowly, checking each of his security runes, trying to find which one had been tripped. Suddenly off in the distance he heard a branch snap and a soft clicking sound.
    “What in the hell is that? They shouldn’t be able to get this close..” Kota activated the rune’s secondary effect and a grid overlaid the entire forest, visible only to his eyes. He could see a disturbance, but it was just a big, dark, fuzzy blur and he couldn’t make out any details. Deciding to move closer, he concentrated on the blur, trying to make out any details he could, but finding nothing. Suddenly from the right a small creature leapt from the trees and flew through the air towards him. Distracted by the large disturbance, Kota had allowed the being to sneak up on him. This was a Chiter, a large insect-like creature that fed on the leftover magic of whatever it could kill. Kota pivoted on his right foot, bringing his left hand forward and activating the rune carved into his palm. His palm struck the Chiter square in the head and it was sent flying by the gravity repulsion that rippled through it’s body, caused by his rune. “Gonna take more ‘n that to get me..” Kota continued walking, this time keeping a closer eye on his surroundings. A few minutes later Kota was nearing the giant disturbance yet could still not tell anything about it. He stopped walking. “Not this time.” He scanned around and saw them all. Not 10, or 50, not even a hundred. There had to be several hundred Chiters massed around him, and he saw a few that were definitely higher class than the lowly Class I he had blown away earlier. He saw a few Class II’s and at least one Class IV. “Damn it, where did they all come from? This can’t be good, there’s never been a force this large this close to the Academy.” he held his arm straight out in front of him and marked the enemies in front of him. The markers glowed red when the magic in the rune had fully charged and he released the pent-up power. Countless blue-white bolts were sent streaking through the air, and hit their targets. He’d taken down maybe 20, and injured a few Class II’s. “Gotta do better than that,” He muttered to himself. He rushed at the Chiters, and propelled himself upwards using the runes on his feet. He quickly activated the secondary function of the rune carved into his iris and used it to draw a rune on the ground below the Chiters beneath him. He held both arms straight out and a larger rune appeared surrounding his hands. He activated the rune below the Chiters, which sent a pulse of gravity into the Chiters, blowing dozens upwards into the air, helplessly. He targeted as many as he could see and pumped as much magic as he could into the rune around his hands. The target markers glowed red and he released the caged energy. More bolts streaked through the air, this time tinged with red and black, and they ripped through Chiters, hitting ones behind them and tearing them apart. He landed on the ground, crouched. There were still hundreds of Chiters left, and he couldn’t use that trick too many more times. It took a lot of energy out of him, and he was still somewhat fatigued from the fight with Dreicht. “Time to buy some time” Kota said to himself. He drew several runes below about 200 of the remaining Chiters with his eye, and quickly activated them. They super-cooled the air surrounding the Chiters and froze them solid. “Some down, plenty to go..” He was bleeding from his left leg where a Chiter’s pincers had sliced at him, and on his back where several Class II’s had used their sharp claws to scrape through his flesh. “Damn it all, I need to step it up. I’ll never make it out alive if I don’t.” He was brought to his knees by the leg of one of the massive Class IV Chiters, barely creating a defensive rune in time. The rune absorbed some of the blast and amplified it, sending it ripping through the air back at the Class IV, rupturing it’s bones. Kota got back up, and in doing so heard an audible crunch. His ankle was broken by the impact of the attack from the Class IV. “Whelp, I am well and truly screwed now..” Suddenly two blips tripped one of his security runes. “What the hell are those? They’re.. not who I think they are.. right?” Kota grimaced. “I’LL HAVE TO BET MY LIFE THAT IT IS!” he roared, and expended the majority of his remaining magic to surround every remaining Chiter in weakening runes. He collapsed, waiting for the final blow, when suddenly dozens upon dozens of Chiters simply dropped dead, as millions of volts were suddenly introduced into their nervous system, instantly frying their primal brains. The frozen Chiters were suddenly consumed by a hungry black flame, their dying cries sounded like nails being scraped upon a blackboard.
    “Well, whaddya know? Looks like someone ended up needing our help after all” Paul grinned. He and Tyler walked into the clearing, absentmindedly killing the remaining Chiters. “What the hell did you wander around in here for?” Paul asked, glancing around to make sure nothing surprised them.
    “Something.. something big tripped the security runes I placed.” Kota grimaced, holding his ankle. “Hang on..” He carved a large rune into the ground with his eye and sat in it, perfectly still. The rune tapped into the geothermal energy of the core, allowing him to recharge his magic energy at a rapid pace, however due to the fact that it required him to remain completely still while it worked, it was impractical for battle. As soon as he was finished replenishing his energy, he traced a pair of runes onto either side of his broken ankle. “Broke it. These binding runes ought to do for now, but I won’t be able to move around too much. Look, that army was twice as big as it was when you got here. Thanks for the help and all guys, but we have a lot more to worry about.” All conflict between them had been put on hold. Their minds hardwired for battle, they knew that if they didn’t play to each-others strengths, they would never survive what was coming. “The army wasn’t what tripped my runes. They arrived after I got here. I don’t know how the hell they did, no force that large should be able to get anywhere near the Academy, but I’m guessing whatever DID trip my runes brought it. I couldn’t make out any details on it, it was just a big dark disturbance.
    “Let’s get the hell out then, we need to let Dreicht know about this,” Tyler said, looking worried, but with a determined look on his face.
    “Dreicht won’t be here forever to help us, if we’re going to pass that test, if we’re.. if we’re going to make a difference, we handle this ourselves. Together.” Kota said, wiping blood from the corner of his mouth.
    “You know he’s got a point, Tyler.” said Paul, his ever-demonic grin on his face.
“Besides, could be fun. I’ve always wanted to play hide-and-seek in here.”
    “You,” Kota said, “scare me. We need a plan if we’re going in. Tyler, you and Paul are going to be on attack. I can’t move around too much so I’ll lay some defensive runes around myself and support you two. I can’t do too much yet, I’m still researching those runes.. but I can try and weaken whatever we’re facing, and give you guys a bit of a boost. I’ll throw in some attacks in between whatever you guys throw at it, and keep it off your backs while you get ready for your attacks. Try and alternate so it doesn’t have a moment to take a breath.”
    “Who died and made you leader? Heh, whatever, right? I probably would have gone with something similar.” Tyler’s eyes glinted, and both Paul and Kota knew it was game on. You couldn’t stop Tyler when he had that look. Kota stood up, testing his ankle with some weight.
    “Alright, I can walk for now, let’s go.” They started walking deeper into the forest, following Kota’s lead, as he led them towards the disturbance, using the grid overlay as a guide. A chill ran down Kota’s spine. “We’re getting close. Be ready.” Paul’s hands crackled with pure plasma, and Tyler coated himself with black flames. Kota drew two runes at the base of their necks. “This will amplify your magic. It won’t do that much, I haven’t perfected it’s formula, but any edge ought to help.”
    “Thanks.” they both said in unison. All three of them kept walking forward, Tyler lighting the way as best he could. His flames, developed for combat, gave off little light. They emerged from the trees, at the opening of a haphazard clearing, obviously newly created by something massive.



-Dreicht-
Dreicht peered in-between trees, his dark coat fluttering in the wind, and his short, white-blond hair stuck up in all directions, as he kept as close an eye as he dared on the three boys. Setting this up had required him to call in quite a few favors. Getting a Trans-dimensional Mage to summon this many Chiters had taken a fair amount of persuading. It was dangerous, but this was worth it. These three had the potential, the strength, and the pure, undiluted willpower needed to bring about change. Individually they were nearly off the charts in terms of latent skills, but they were unrefined. They were barbaric, dull clubs, instead of the clever, sharp, deadly daggers that he needed them to be. They had dealt with the Chiters just as he had suspected they would. He had been standing by had they been overcome by the monsters, ready to intervene if needed. However he would have been heavily disappointed if they had required his assistance.
    “Little do they know, their trial has already begun..” he thought to himself. He leapt from tree to tree, silently moving closer to the clearing where the Chiters had been summoned and released. Earlier that day as he had fought them, he tagged each of them with a small pheromone that would draw the Chiters to them. Dreicht arrived at the tree just at the edge of the clearing, concealing himself behind a large cluster of leaves, and diminishing his presence. Dreicht was a master of the simple yet effective Energy Manipulation magic. In essence, Energy Manipulation mages manifest magic in a physical form, using it to amplify their physical abilities and manipulate it into various forms. Dreicht had combined this magic with a variety of defensive and redirectional martial arts, and was one of the most effective magical warriors to date. “Hmm. This just might be fun..”

-Meanwhile-
-Paul-

“What did this? What the hell are we dealing with here?” Kota said, scanning the area. “I’ve got nothing, whatever it was, it isn’t here.”
    “Whatever it is, it’s big, it’s angry, and it wants to play crush the humans with Tyler.” Paul said, wickedly. Despite his mischievous demeanor, Paul was worried. “There’s something in the air here. Something deliberate. This wasn’t just a berserk rage, this was done for a reason. This is where the army was assembled,” He stated. He almost felt like he was making this up as he went, but as he spoke the words he knew that he was spot on. He felt a prickling at the back of his neck, and he knew something was off, but he couldn’t place it.

-Kota-

“You’re right, look closer. There are tracks everywhere, and the lead exactly to where they ambushed me.” Kota said. He kneeled closer to the ground and examined it. “And.. there’s something else, I can’t quite make it out. It almost looks like -no.. part of a summoning circle? It couldn’t be. But.. that’s exactly what it looks like. But only a human or a VERY powerful monster could have used magic this complex.
    “Either way, this is bad. Whichever we’re dealing with, a traitor or a high-class monster, we’re out of our league here!” Tyler exclaimed, gesturing vehemently at the tracks “Whoever summoned these has a lot of power, we can’t match that.” Kota glanced at him, then addressed Paul.
    “And you? What do you think? Think we can handle a few hard punches?” Kota grinned, despite himself.
    “Eh, how hard could they be? We don’t do this and we might as well pack our bags, because we don’t belong here. You two wanna stay at this Academy? Then we fight.” For the first time that night, Paul had a hard, determined look on his face. Suddenly Kota felt a tingling at the base of his spine. Something leapt from the trees, high into the sky, concealed by the light from the moon shining bright in the sky, now visible, in the clearing. It landed in the middle of the clearing, crouched, in a shadow. It stood up, and strolled leisurely from the cover of the shadow.
    “Well said boys,” said Dreicht with a smile. “Your trial beings now.”
    “Dreicht? You were the one who summoned all of the Chiters?!” Kota shouted, and carved his defensive runes into the ground, in a rectangular shape. “Retreat here if you’re in rough shape. This barrier probably won’t hold long against him but I’ll try and give you time to recover. Otherwise, stick with what we talked about before. GO!” He held up his hand and bombarded Dreicht with 6 blue-white streaks “Strident Burst!” Kota shouted, and while Dreicht was stunned, carved a weakening rune on the back of his neck. “Ok guys, the rune is set. Throw everything you got!” Tyler focused fire in his hands and released it in concentrated blast
“Infernal Typhoon!” Dreicht did a backwards handspring and landed in a wide defensive stance, holding his hands out in front and making a shield of pure energy. The blast struck his shield and suddenly expanded into a spiraling vortex of black flames. Some of them managed to bypass Dreicht’s shield and his hands were burnt slightly. “Gotcha!” Paul appeared behind Dreicht in a flash of lightning, and did a quick, two-knuckle jab into the base of Dreicht’s spine, and pumping electricity into his nervous system. This technique only functioned properly on a being of lesser magic like a lower class Chiter, most humans and higher level monsters had too much magical power, that acted like an internal shield, and stopped his electricity from frying their brains. At most on a skilled opponent like Dreicht, it would disorient him for a short period.
“I’ve blown his nervous system, he shouldn’t be able to move properly for a few seconds!” shouted Paul. “Take him out, Kota!” Paul and Tyler both retreated to his defensive runes and placed a hand on his shoulder, channeling their magical energy through him.
“Advanced Strident Burst: Elemental Varient!” Kota carved a massive rune in the air above Dreicht, and hundreds of bolts streaked towards Dreicht, surrounded by black flames and coughing electricity. There was a blinding flash, as they impacted against Dreicht and the surrounding area. When the light and smoke cleared, all they saw were dozens of craters in the ground. Dreicht was gone, and they stood their panting, drained of energy. Kota’s barrier flickered and died, his defensive runes fading away.
“Oh come on boys, don’t tell me that’s all you’ve got?” Dreicht lept out of the trees behind them, and blew them backwards with an explosive blast. He walked forward, calling to them. “You know I can redirect magic, you’re going to have to hit me in a lot more ways than just one!” All three of them looked at eachother and stood up.
“Hehe, he fell for our trap!” Paul snickered. He and Tyler placed their hands on Kota’s shoulders again, and all three channeled as much magical power as they dared, shouting with the exertion. Suddenly the runes that had previously faded away flared up again. Dreicht looked down at his feet. The runes shifted and merged into one.
“What?!” Dreicht was brought to his knees as the rune drained his magical power and dispersed it into the ground. Dreicht manifested a chunk of the little amount of magic he still contained within himself and punched the ground, destroying the rune and stopping it’s effect. “Well-- boys-” he panted and coughed, suddenly looking very pale. “You’ve got me good, haven’t you?” Suddenly all three of them felt an overwhelming pressure “But, not that good.” Suddenly he seemed perfectly fine, like the rune had never even affected him. “You’ve passed your trial. Sorry to have to break it to you that I was holding back, but I might have bit the dust back there if I hadn’t unsealed my magical energy. I might just have run out otherwise. Good luck boys, you three will need it to survive here at this academy.” He smiled in what would normally seem a perfectly friendly way, but was utterly terrifying. “G-bye.” He walked into the trees and vanished.
“What the fu-- what just happened?” Tyler said, pounding the ground with his fist. “He was just playing with us!”
“Damn it!” Kota muttered. “He totally played us. Let’s go, guys, it’s late.” the three boys walked off into the woods and headed back to the academy, furious that they had been played so easily.

-The Next Day-

Kota sat up, yawning, and swung his legs out of bed. He slowly made his way across the small dorm room that was customary for all students at the Academy, and tossed on his gray cargo-pants, and black t-shirt. He deactivated the security runes that he carved into the door-frame every night, and slipped through the door, grabbing his lab coat on the way out. He tapped the sequence of runes on the outside of his door-frame that locked his door. He headed for the food hall where breakfast was available, walking by both Paul and Tyler’s dorms. He slipped a note under each of their doors and hurried off, eager to catch breakfast before all the food got cold. He reached the food hall and headed to the front and grabbed a plate. He sat down at the table with a heaping pile of eggs on his plate, and some pancakes. Hopefully those two would see his notes before they were sent out on their first mission. Students at the Academy were not taught the typical way, through classes. It was a tough world and they were taught through experience. This ensured that they learned exactly what they needed to, exactly how they needed to learn it. Kota finished his breakfast and walked out of the food hall, slowly making his way down the corridor and into the entrance hall, where he stood near the entrance to the Archives, waiting for Paul and Tyler to hopefully show up. The notes he had left each of them had told them to meet him in the entrance hall after they woke up. Glancing lazily around, he spotted Tyler walking through the crowd of other students, making his way towards him.
    “Oi.. what the hell do you want so early in the morning?” Tyler’s eyes were red with exhaustion. None of them had gotten much sleep last night, and Kota’s eyes probably looked similar.
    “Just wait here. Once Paul comes I’ll show you why we’re here. Don’t worry, it’ll be fun!” Kota said, with the smallest twitch of his lips betraying his calm demeanor. Tyler sighed and began amusing himself by making small flames and manipulating them. “What, do you just play with fire every chance you get? Boy I bet Smokey the Ursa just loves you.”
    “Helps me concentrate. Good for training, too. You’d think it’d be easier, but it’s takes a lot less control to make giant blasts of fire than it does to make precise flames.” Tyler continued wriggling his fingers, twisting the flames into different patterns and shapes. Finally after what felt like a very long time, Paul showed up, looking just as tired, but a lot happier.
    “The hell were you?” Kota snapped. “We’ve been waiting here forever.” Paul grinned, as wickedly as ever, and said
    “I didn’t get your note right away. I was eating breakfast and then went back to my dorm, and found the note.”
    “Wh- god damn it. You actually managed to somehow get to the hall before me, eat breakfast, and get back after me. How much did you eat?” Kota grinned.
    “I uh.. the Academy MIGHT need to adjust their food budget.” Paul said, glancing to the left mischieviously.
    “Oi. Can we get a move on whatever it is you wanted to show us?” Said Tyler, slowly standing up and yawning. Kota motioned for them to follow him and walked into the Archives, gesturing for them to be quiet.
    “What I’m going to show you, is something that I’m not really very inclined to tell anyone about, because well.. that ruins the fun. But this is why you guys don’t see me all that often outside of missions.” Kota led them through winding bookshelves and magical data archives, finally arriving at what appeared to be a blank space of wall. “Right. Here we are. He reached into the pocket of his coat and pulled out a slim piece of metal. He held it up to the wall, and a slight shimmer seemed to run across it’s surface. “Just walk at the wall.” They stared at him. “Oh just do it, idiots.” Both of them glanced at each other and shrugged. Both of them walked at the wall, and vanished.
    “Ahhhhhh what the hell just happened?!” he heard both of them shouting, muffled by the wall. He grinned. They had reacted just how he hoped they might. He stepped through the wall afterwards, and put the piece of metal away. They were in a small room, the size of a walk in closet.
    “So. We having fun yet?” Both of them stared at him, then at each other, and then grinned. “Thought so. Paul, hit that button second from the top.” Paul thumbed the button, and the room began to smoothly glide downwards.
    “What in the world is going on right now?” said Tyler, confused. “How the hell did we just go through the wall, and where are we going right now?” Paul just leaned against the wall of the room grinning. Paul was amused by just about everything.
    “You’ll see. We’re here.” The room stopped moving and he pulled out the piece of metal again. This time they saw a rune glow faintly on it as he held it up to the wall. They walked through the wall without needing to be told, and he practically heard their jaws drop. “Welcome to my little home away from home. I call it Aesir.” Massive shelves lined the walls, filled with books both new and old, all documenting different runes and their usage. He led them across the complex, and through another door, which he once again held the slim piece of metal up to. The door slid into the wall with a soft wooshing sound, and he led them inside.
    “What.” Tyler said, dumbfounded. They were in a smaller room, filled with strange devices and tanks containing.. “Monsters?” Tyler breathed, subtly shifting into a battle stance.
    “Calm down. They’re not conscious. Some aren’t even alive” said Kota. He tapped one of the tanks and watched Tyler cringe, amusedly. “See? Harmless.”
    “Again, what.” said Tyler. “How do you have any of this? Where did it all come from?”
    “Well..” Kota looked around, looking vaguely guilty. “Last night wasn’t exactly my first visit into the forest..”