Mud flew up from the bottom of my shoes, the moist air around the trail thickening in my throat. My breath shrunk into shallow gasps and I stumbled through a puddle.

Darkness still rested on the academy grounds as I left the Victorian castle behind me. I snuck through the night towards the forest and felt the weight of my legs drag up the hill.

The spandex shorts clung to my skin, sticky sensations dripping down the valley of my breasts. I swept my tongue across my bottom lip, tasting a tinge of salt.

Once my chest started to burn, the inner beast whimpered at my exhaustion and clawed to give me strength. Instead I steered my determination into desperation; immediately unlocking the rushes of human adrenaline. Warmth shot through my bloodstream and I felt my eyes glow a beaming grey.

I disappeared into the forest, putting my instinct on pilot as it steered me in the dark.

I leaped over logs and ducked under branches, my legs pumping like cylinders. Feeling the leaves crunch under my shoes, I sliced my hands through the air and continued down my daily trail.

Suddenly my soles sunk deeper into the dirt than usual and my hands pushed aside unfamiliar vines.

Alarmed, my inner beast tugged on my instincts and I lifted my head higher. I quickened my pace as the eerie feeling stretched.

Run.

Glowing red eyes beamed ahead of me and an abrupt wind pulled me towards it. My mind wanted to escape the opposite way, but the rich blood colour drew me in.

The eyes grew bigger and my feet tingled as a powerful energy coursed beneath the ground.

I ripped through the forest as its power was sucking faster, and I didn't think my legs could run any harder.

Then a flash lit up the night, colouring the forest a blinding white.

Startled, I stumbled backward and shielded my arm over my face. My hand aimlessly reached for a branch to support me as the glaring light began to dim. I slowly pulled my arm down and squinted.

Then a blur sped by me. Something hard cracked against my rib cage and I was flying through the air until my head connected with a tree, black dots consuming parts of my vision.

The earth cold against my cheek, I grabbed a hold of the dirt, feeling for something-a weapon. My fingers roamed over a bumpy surface and I kept blinking until the darkness returned. An animalistic hiss caused my chest to tighten, and I clenched around the branch.

Pain shot through my hand and I screamed, my eyes watering as gleaming white scales scraped against my palm. Red leaked down my fingers and I hugged my hand to my hip, seeing my wet flesh cut open.

I staggered to my feet, my eyes following the scaly branch.

"A tail?" I whispered.

It lashed out and I ducked, the rest of the beast's body still hidden in the shadows. Scales swept me under my feet and my palms smacked into the leaves, my stomach following after. I rolled over and heard the tail whistle past my ear, just kissing the hairs standing on my neck.

I pushed my heels off the ground and ran, but made it two steps away before pain erupted in my ankles. I yelped, hitting the ground again.

The hiss got louder and I shut my eyes, fear pooling into my stomach. The beast growled inside of me, slowly pacing in its cellar.

"No," I said and closed my eyes even tighter. "I'd rather die human than let you win."

A gunshot rang and there was a scamper of feet, leaves rustling in twirls before settling back down.

On a damp patch of leaves, I laid cradled against a tree and wrapped both my arms around my waist in useless comfort. I was getting used to this defenceless, pathetic position, was I?

Footsteps rushed toward me and I remained still. "What the hell?" a voice furiously spat. Someone snatched my wrists and I couldn't even fit a word before the man yanked me up, spinning to face him. "Are you hurt?"

My mouth was left agape at Archer's scrunched up expression.

His worried gaze roamed over my head and shoulders, and he dug his nails into my arm, checking my legs and then finally my ankles. "Did it hurt you? You're bleeding."

Archer...caring?

"For justice's sake, can you not do something stupid?"

I wiped the surprise off my features and shoved his hands away. "I'm fine. The blood actually compliments my shoes. Red socks are in this season too."

He scooped my legs up and almost got away with carrying me bridal style but I flailed my arms in natural defense.

"Ow! Your thumb is in my eye!" he cried out.

"Put me down, ya fucking catatonic feeble-minded pulp!"

"That was my chin!"

"Do ya want to feel the wrath of my elbow?!"

His grip slipped and my butt hit the dirt. "If I was human, you'd make a shit-tastic hero. Damsel in distress, my ass. Literally," I mumbled in a rush. He extended a hand. "Touch me and I rip ya ears off and pin 'em to your nose."

"Ungrateful bitch," Archer said, pocketing his hand.

The string of profanity was caught in my throat and I watched his brows come together, staring off to where the beast left.

I stood up. "Was that the 'something' you're looking for?"

His eyes remained fixed on the darkness that laid ahead. "I don't know. I was too busy saving your ass." His brows narrowed even further and he kicked a rock, watching it land somewhere afar. "Should've went after it and left you..."

"But you didn't. Were you following me?"

He finally met my gaze, and I nearly stumbled back at his crazy eyes. "Why in the name of justice are you out at this time?!" He threw a hand up and gave my shoulder a good shove. "You may find pleasure in living the life of a horror film but stupid people who go into forests alone always get chopped up and die! Being out past four in the morning is fucking insane!" I mentally saw his gears turn and his eyes softened, hands dropping to his waist. "Why don't you sleep?"

I watched his eyes dilate, imagining his mind getting tied up in his web of questions. The apples of my cheeks pushed up as I smiled. "Oh, muffin. I kinda like seeing ya go all cray cray crazy for me. It's hella adorbs."

"Vhalerie!"

"Archer!" I mocked him and laughed. " So why'd ya stay with me instead of chasing that scaly beast?"

"I should have." Archer's voice projected in a different direction. "I should've went after it." With my glowing eyes, I saw him stroke a thumb over his arm. "But perhaps that beast could've been your average night crawler."

"Yes." I rolled my eyes. "It was probably a mutant raccoon. Glowing red eyes and"-I saw the new teeth marks on his skin-"a taste for trash."

Strips of sunlight peeked through the green canopy and his glare seemed scarier now that I could see it better. "And now I'll never know because of your idiocy."

"Are we gonna investigate?" I asked, already taking a step deeper into the forest.

He grabbed my arm. "No. You're going to class."

I glared at his hand and then grabbed his belt buckle, giving it a good shake. "Someone needs to slip off their bossy pants."

He jerked in surprise and I let go with a laugh.

"Class, Vhalerie." His jaw tightened and I held his stern glare with my signature, dark smile.

"Ya know, Mister. Ya could've asked nicely." I turned towards the direction of the academy and he failed to follow along my side. "Aren't ya coming?" I stepped in front of him. "Look, asshole. You go, I go. Forest or class?"

He peeled his attention off of the trees and looked down at me. "Fine." Satisfied, I made a one eighty degree spin before he asked, "Wait-can you walk?"

I rolled my ankle as the skin healed over my cuts. "Grand spanking new," I said and kicked one leg out, giving it a lil' shimmy.

I led us back to the trail, picking our pace to a steady run. I heard the footfall of Archer behind me and ran a little harder, suddenly feeling the wrongness of being alone with him in a forest.

But his heavy breaths only heightened in volume and I wanted to zip ahead, away from this wrong vibe between us. While jumbled in my thoughts, the sound of his breath shifted to my side and he started matching my strides next to me.

"What...What do you do when everyone else is asleep?" he persisted.

We broke through the forest, shoes making squishing noises as we treaded through the puddles. "I do what keeps me awake."

I noticed parts of his shirt darken. "Like...what?"

Water splashed against my bare legs, feet soaked and now heavy.

His lack of knowledge could be used to my advantage. I smirked and kept looking forward. "I'm not telling you."

We separated at the dorms and decided to meet outside of his room since I assured I would get ready faster than him. Once in my room, I kicked off my muddy shoes, stripping off the damp sports bra and tossed it onto the empty second bed beside mine.

Jumping in and out of the shower, I squeezed into a dress and gathered my pink hair into pigtails. I dug my hand into the jar sitting on my desk and pulled out a gumball, slamming the door behind me.

I popped it in my mouth and chewed all the way to the dorms. "Where is he?" I asked. Archer pointed to the fat lump under Roger's blanket and I marched over, grabbed two chubby ankles and pulled.

A ground shaking thud and creative exchange of profanity later, the three of us walked down to our first class.

"I'm warning you. I'm an expert at physics," Archer said.

My brows slightly came together. "Physics? We don't have physics."

Roger pulled a sandwich out of his pocket and started biting into it. As he spoke, chunks of saliva-covered wheat spat onto his shirt. "Our schedules rotate every day. Yesterday's second period class is now today's."

Archer stuck out his bottom lip. "Oh." He looked down at his binder, checking the schedule. "Then what class are we attending?"

Roger swallowed his breakfast and we both exchanged dark smiles. "It's a surprise," I said. Roger smirked behind his sandwich as Archer gave us a confused look.

When we reached the locker rooms, I departed into the women's side and immediately the chatter stopped. Girls glimpsed in my direction and quickly snatched their bags to vacate space on the bench for me.

I grew them a slow smile and their faces turned pink. Laughing, I spun my combination and opened the last locker, yanking the gym uniform under my gun.

Modesty way out of line, I shimmied into XS clothes and shut the door. The girl beside me flinched. Smirking, I popped a bubblegum in her face and left the room, leaving her flushed.

"Hey slut," Roger greeted me by the benches.

"Hey chunky chicken," I replied, taking a seat beside him.

I frowned at the empty seat next to me and looked over the class sitting away from us.

Coach Isaac, a tall, lanky six foot man who look awfully young for a six century old demon, fumbled with his whistle before finally getting a weak tweet out of it.

"Class," he quietly spoke out. No one was paying attention, he cleared his throat. "Class." People glanced at him and rolled their eyes, slowly simmering their chatter to silence. Coach cleared his throat once again and looked at the papers on his clipboard. "V-Villains are taught five vital subjects"-he flipped the paper and almost dropped the clipboard, catching it against his thigh-"and...and today's game will test one of those subjects."

I tied up the pink wisps of hair falling past my cheeks and looked over to find Roger holding a sandwich.

"One day you will eat your own mother," I said.

"You'd blow off the heads of your children. "

We both grinned and glanced back at Coach Isaac. My eyes wandered over him and then the rest of the class, Archer still nowhere in sight.

Crossing my arms over my chest, Coach looked at me and I barely heard him call my name.

My lazy eyes fluttered open. "Ya, sir?"

"You're familiar with the subject of determination. Why is that aspect important for a villain?"

I kept my arms crossed. "Determination: to not let any fucker get in your way towards your ultimate goal."

He gave a small nod and glanced at his clipboard again. "Correct. It's about harvesting that unstoppable drive towards your goal--even if you must violate all moral codes. What you want is raw, burning determination. One that can only be ignited by two things: anger or fear. Your inner beast"-he took off his glasses and neatly tucked them in the collar of his shirt-"is unlocked when your human side becomes weak and begins to fear death. Today, we're going to use both emotions to teach you how to incorporate the beast's strength into your own power."

You could hear Coach Isaac's bones crack and break, his skin stretching into his stronger, beast form. His glasses popped off his shirt at the enlargement of his torso, and red scales grew out from his body.

Startled, the class watched in horrible fascination as our scrawny gym teacher transformed into a monstrous beast; Hell's Personal Purge; the janitors of Hell; the ones who used to clean out demon anger and release it to the human mainland.

Only a few of those legendary beasts roamed this supernatural academy and I didn't even know Coach Isaac was one of them.

Three feet taller, his clothes remained on but his shoulders broadened and-"You're actually hot Coach Isaac," I said aloud, interrupting both my dreamy thoughts and probably others.

The girls giggled and the boys awkwardly smiled, looking for Coach's reaction. Instead of an embarrassed face, he gave a slow, dark smile that caught us all off guard.

"Never judge a two sided creature. Even if they don't show the other guy," he told me.

His words set something off in my mind and I covered up my interest with a smile.

Coach Isaac paced across the gym as he loudly spoke. "Alright, freaks of nature. Pair up. Vhalerie, I don't want you with that freshmeat. Why don't you pair with..." He gazed over the class, mumbling things like 'too skinny, she'd break him in half, slower than my grandmother' until his gaze stopped. A smile spread across his lips and we followed his gaze.

"You."

Archer and Lance and another hero-in-disguise came out of the boy's locker room and frowned at the sudden attention.

"Yeah, sir?" all three asked.

As soon as the three mystery students stopped beside Roger and I, murmurs rose in the class.

Coach Isaac glimpsed at his clipboard and pointed to Archer. "You pair up with the bubblegum bitch"--I returned his remark with a smile--"and Lance and Price can pair up. Everyone else, find a partner! And no, Roger. You can't pair up with your sandwich."

Roger quickly stuffed it in his mouth and gave Coach a cheeky smile, crumbs rolling off his shirt. I watched him get paired with Cannibal Joe and instantly his smile vanished, replaced with a desperate plea to me.

I just shrugged, knowing although Cannibal Joe appeared dangerous, he was a pretty chill guy. One time he even offered me a human finger at lunch. Was as crunchy as a carrot.

"...You already know Lance..." I paid more attention to Archer and saw his lips moving, eyes actually on me. "Are you listening?"

"I do unless you're talking." I stopped chewing on the gum and flashed him a pearly white smile.

He scowled. "Anyway, bubblegum bitch," he said and I purposefully popped a pink bubble in his face. "As you've heard, this is Price."

With dark skin and a buzz cut, the other male Hero greeted me with a quick nod. "Salutations and greetings."

"Wow. It's like talking to an adult. Hey, Archer!" I tossed a thumb in Price's direction. "See this six foot four tree? You should pick up on this guy's lingo. Learn a thing or two."

"Chatterbox dingo!" Coach shouted at me. "Do something with that mouth will you?"

"Ya' got it, sir!" I put two hands to my lips and blew a big kiss to Coach Isaac who replied with a fake smile plus an eye roll.

I linked my arm with Archer's and waved to Lance and Price. "Ta ta, muffins! I'll take Grumpy off your hands."

Lance brought a hand to his forehead in exaggerated relief. "Oh, happy day son!" He shook on Price's arm. "The adoption center is finally taking him back! Raise the flags! Bring the champagne! We're free! Free I tell you!"

He spread his arms out to the ceiling and Price stood there like a tree. A total camera moment.

Archer and I stepped to the other side of the gym and waited on Coach's command. He weighed up Archer from head to toe and grunted. "We're going to undergo some obstacles and I need you to follow Vhalerie. Don't make me regret picking you. You'll hate your life if you turn out to be like those fucking wimps." He specifically pointed to Roger who snuck a bite of his sandwich before hiding it under his shirt.

I passed Archer, bumping his shoulder and whispered, "Try not to fall behind."

Assistant teachers laid out tables lined with blades and everyone rushed in with a partner. My fingers danced over steel and diamond but stopped at silver, picking up a twelve set.

Reaching to our wooden dummies that stood at a distance, I strapped my own set on as he did the same. I started with a simple move, hitting the center of the circular target. Archer didn't miss either. As our dagger amount lessened, I added flips and drew energy from the ground with specific gestures to curve the blades and spin them.

He matched my flow, copying my movements and dipped the exact same curves into the air.

He replicated my flips and his blades always nailed the target. Coach Isaac even watched him for a while, arms crossed.

Gritting my teeth, I started to make my moves more complex, hoping he wouldn't catch the details and the different angles but he kept up.

"Vhalerie!" Coach Isaac's voice boomed throughout the whole gym. "Is that sweat I see?"

I relaxed my furrowed brows and loosened my shoulders. "No."

Coach Isaac slapped Archer on the back. "That'a boy! Way to make her work."

I clenched tighter on the black handle and chucked the knife, the impact of the blade shaking the target.

Soon we switched to machinery and some of us were handed guns. Archer was just finishing up with his last blade before hesitation took over. The gym doors opened and he stopped mid throw, lowering the dagger.

Confused, I cocked my head to side and asked if he was okay.

He turned towards the sound of dragging chains. "What...are they?"

I looked over at the disfigured monsters with cuffed wrists and simply said, "The kids in detention." His stricken face made me laugh. "Jokes! They were created in the lab; artificial creatures. The monsters that students bring to life but mistakenly screw up on their genetics. They're going to be killed anyway so we use them as practice dummies when we can."

He kept staring at the failed student projects and I tried to read his emotionless face. "You're doing all right there, Mister?"

"Yeah." He tossed his final blade, and it spun straight, nailing the handle of my blade and splitting it in half. "Yeah, I'm fine."

I watched him turn his back to me and was about to ask him what was wrong until Coach put a pistol in my hand. "Getting rusty there, Vhal? Maybe you should use a little bit of your beast. They're there to help, not harm. "

I gripped hard onto the weapon and yanked it off of his palm. "Bett'a keep your mouth shut before I blow ya brains out."

He arched a challenging brow and motioned behind me, handing a gun to Archer too.

I explained to the Hero, "Our goal is to use up all our bullets by killing as many lab monsters in your fastest time."

The chains dropped from their wrists and squeals of freedom came from the beasts, their excited cries bouncing off the gym walls. I loaded the weapon and aimed, calculating the movement of their limbs and firing where their body landed next.

Bullets shot through throats, breaking through ankles and digging into heads. Black blood spilled over the wooden floorboards and I pointed at the last one almost reaching the doors. My thumb pulled down and its screams died along with its withering body.

There was a click and Coach Isaac looked up from his watch. "Sixteen kills in four point eighteen seconds. Your best record, Vhal."

I smirked and flipped over the empty gun, handing it to Coach. Realizing Archer still had more bullets, I hadn't heard his gun go off and stepped towards him. "Hey, muffin! Ya gonna shoot or not?"

His silent reply tugged on my attention and I crossed my arms, standing next to him. I watched as a few lab monsters hopped around the gym, other villains now wrapping up.

"Archer, c'mon," I said.

His wrist followed the monster but the squealing beasts dodged each bullet, giggling after he missed.

Coach Isaac craned his neck towards us and students brought down their guns, looking over.

"Just shoot it!" My voice boomed, catching the grin of the lab monster as it flipped over the bullet.

Lance and Price had already finished and were quickening their approach.

I snapped, "Archer!"

I saw tremors travel up the gun, the barrel shaking as bullets aimlessly flew out. "If ya can't do it properly-" I reached for his hand but he ducked sideways, pulling the trigger.

The bullet shot between the creature's eyes and it blew backwards, body skidding across the floorboards. "Took ya long enough! I've watched grass grow faster!" I yanked the gun out of his hand and sneered. "For a second there, I didn't think ya ever killed anyone."

I was quick enough to catch the pinkness in his cheeks and it was already too late once they faded. Lance gapped at Archer and Price's eyes widened. Suddenly, I brought my own hand to my mouth and just stood there.

"Hell's Bells. Ya haven't!?"

+++

A/N: Sorry I took so long to update. My schedule is gett'in nutty now <3

Any-hoo, what did you think? Favourite part? And please don't think Archer is lovey dovey after this because he's actually a dark little f-oops I dropped the 'u'-cker.

Loving the support on this story! Fave character so far?

If you have a banner or cover send it so I can post it :)

Vhalerie does have that Harley Quinn twist because she was the inspiration of that character so some lingo will be similar---just letting you know if you're into the Harley fandom ;)

Oh, and what's your ethnicity? Just curious.

Voting means the world to me so click that star if ya want!

Please? :)

Xx8tracks