Biohuman

Lee Seng, Miss Emory and the three children settled in one of the classrooms near the stairwell. Luckily for the children, it was an art classroom. Paper, paint, paintbrushes, pencils, and markers were left in their respective canisters. Miss Emory led the children over to a pair of high desks and sat them in the chairs.

"Why don't you guys draw for the time being, hm?" Miss Emory suggested. Lee Seng moved over and grabbed some paper, pencils, and markers. He set them down on the table and passed some paper out to the kids. Miss Emory smiled at Lee Seng as he crouched and watched the little girl start drawing a tree. The little girl started to draw stick people and Lee Seng smiled at her.

"What are you drawing?" Lee Seng asked the little girl. The little girl's brow was furrowed like she was in an intense competition. She focused with all her heart and might on drawing a female stick figure.

"I'm drawing Miss Emory and my friends." The little girl told Lee Seng.

"What're you guys doing?"

"We're having a picnic! Miss Emory said we'd get to go on a picnic! I can't wait, so I'm drawing it here!"

Lee Seng smiled and looked over at the boy next to her. He was in the middle of drawing a dinosaur breathing out fire. The little girl on the other side of the table seemed to inquisitively stare at the paper.

"Still haven't thought of anything, Maggie?" Miss Emory asked the little girl. Maggie simply shook her head and continued to stare at the paper. Miss Emory puffed her cheek as she nodded and stood up. She wandered over to the little boy and asked him what he was drawing.

"A huge t-rex breathing fire!" The little boy shouted, excitedly. He colored the flames in purple and imitated the fire breathing. Lee Seng stood up and grabbed a chair and sat. He pulled a paper over and started to scribble on the sheet. Art was something Lee Seng had done a lot in the past, but nothing came to him. He scribbled for a while, getting lost in the trance it put him in.

By the time Lee Seng snapped out of it, Miss Emory was two chairs away from him, drawing something. Her eyes flicked to Lee Seng and noticed he had snapped out of whatever daze he was in. She smiled at him and looked at her paper.

"You draw well, Lee Seng. Have you ever thought of becoming an artist?" Miss Emory asked. Lee Seng looked at what she was drawing and noticed Emory had started drawing him. It was rough but Lee Seng could tell it was him.

"It's just a hobby." Lee Seng answered Emory. "I only got good at drawing because I wanted to draw runes."

"Runes? Don't you have to be a rune smith or something to use those?"

"You can use a small fraction of runes but to have access to all you have to have the rune ability." Lee Seng explained. Miss Emory nodded as one of the children showed their drawings.

"Wow! Great work, Reggie. Do ya wanna draw another one?" Miss Emory asked. Reggie shook his head and set the paper down.

"Is there anything else to do? I wanna play outside." Reggie said. Miss Emory furrowed her eyebrows and sighed.

"We can't. We have to stay here with Mr. Lee Seng. It isn't safe to go outside." Miss Emory told the boy. Reggie and the two girls made a fuss and Miss Emory stopped drawing and tried to hush them.

"You said that before!" Maggie shouted. "We haven't gotten to go outside yet! I wanna go outside!" The three kids complained and threw tantrums as Miss Emory tried to calm them down.

"Shhh, we'll go outside soon, everyone. We're still playing hide and seek!" Miss Emory told the kids. They all stopped crying at the mention of 'hide and seek' and looked at Miss Emory in confusion. "Remember? We're supposed to find the others! Where did they go?"

"W-we're playing hide and seek?" Reggie asked.

"Yeah." Miss Emory nodded. "We found Mr. Lee Seng. We got to find the others! Once we find the others, we can go outside!"

"Really?"

"Mmmhm. You three must be quiet about this, though." Miss Emory raised a finger to her mouth. "Reggie, Maggie and Ashley need to seek quiet. If they hear us coming, they might run away."

"Why do we have to be quiet? Is it because of the scary fire?" Ashley asked. Miss Emory nodded.

"The scary fire is looking for the others, too. If they find them, they'll try to take them before we can. We must be quiet so we can have more friends, okay?" Miss Emory asked. The kids all nodded, seemingly buying the hide and seek game.

"Where are they?" A male voice asked. "Weren't they just here?"

"I don't know." A female voice answered. "Do you think it was wise to split up? What if they attack us?"

"They won't attack us." The male voice replied. "They ran away from the square when we confronted them."

"I wish I got paired with Alex, instead. Being paired with you. We would've found people by now." The girl complained.

"Just shut it. You didn't even think about the betrayal when you saw Olivia and her friends earlier. If you'd just attacked when Tyrone did, we wouldn't be in this situation. Now we're trying to look for Liv and her friends before—" A canister flew off its spot, hitting the ground as Lee Seng whipped his head around. One of the kids had mistakenly hit it and Miss Emory was scrambling to hush them.

"It's alright, dear. Be quiet. Come over here with your friends and I. We have to play quietly now, okay?" Miss Emory whispered.

"Why?" Reggie asked. "I thought we were playing hide and seek!"

"Shhh! Come here." Miss Emory waved the children over. Lee Seng turned his attention onto the door.

"What was that?" The girl asked. The footsteps crept closer to the door. Lee Seng gulped as a band of Dark Matter grew on his wrists.

"Dunno. Maybe they're in here." The boy answered. In a swift motion, the door flew open, and the duo had eyes on Lee Seng. "It's you!" Jordan rushed into the room as Lee Seng put his hands up.

"Stop!" Lee Seng shouted.

"Why should I stop? You made us chase you around to this stupid school! Don't you know what happened?" Jordan asked. The children screeched in fear as Miss Emory shielded them from Jordan and Lexie. Jordan rushed straight for Lee Seng as Lexie noticed four cowering people behind Lee Seng.

"Jordan, wait!" Lexie shouted.

"You're not gonna ruin my—"

The dark gray band expanded around Lee Seng's wrist as he flicked his wrist forward. The band shot off Lee Seng's wrist and flew at Jordan. Jordan instinctively whacked it away, only to feel the band slip on him and tighten around his wrist.

"What the fu—"

"Shhh!" Lexie covered Jordan's mouth. Lee Seng hesitantly watched as Jordan struggled to pull Lexie's hand away from his mouth. "There're people here! Innocent people!" Jordan's eyes moved past Lee Seng and noticed the teacher shielding three children. Jordan instantly stopped. His eyes moved between Lee Seng and the people huddled against the wall. Lee Seng let out a sigh as he slightly turned to look at Miss Emory and the kids.

"It's alright, guys. The-these guys aren't seeking for us. They're trying to find me and my friends." Lee Seng told them.

"W-what? Why?" Miss Emory asked. She looked at Jordan and Lexie, worried for the children's safety. "Did you get into some sort of trouble?"

"A misunderstanding of sorts." Lee Seng awkwardly answered.

"I wouldn't call it that." Jordan said, ripping Lexie's hand off his mouth. "We were trying to get you to leave this place. You ended up getting sucked in!" Lexie wiped her hand on Jordan's shirt before standing next to him. "Liv had to play the hero, again! This is why we shouldn't accept help from the outside!"

"I'm so confused." Lee Seng shook his head. He lowered his right arm and pointed with his left hand at Jordan. The dark energy still buzzed with Jordan. Something wasn't right. "Your aura is telling me otherwise."

"What? We're here to help." Lexie told Lee Seng. "You guys got in the way."

"We're on official business."

"Don't you know the saying, 'first come, first serve?' We were on this case way before you and your friends showed up. Get out!" Jordan motioned.

"If we could then we would." Lee Seng answered. He lowered his left arm and sighed. He turned to Miss Emory. "They're fine. Thankfully one of them has more than two brain cells."

"You makin' fun of me?" Jordan stepped forward. In an instant, pressure wrapped around Lee Seng as he whipped his head back towards Jordan and Lexie.

"Another step and I'll crush you." Lee Seng threatened. He flicked his finger at Jordan and watched him scoot backwards into a chair. Lee Seng released Jordan and looked at Lexie. "I don't care if you guys were on the case first. We're working for the same cause. Let's just work together to find the rest of the people lost in here and get them out."