“Do we have them?” Marie asked giddily.

“Got 'em.” Eriel riffled a set of photos like a deck of cards, creating a satisfying 'brrr'ing noise before she splayed them all out over the table.

“How in the hell did you get a hold of so much?” Nat questioned with wide, impressed eyes. Her brows raised practically off her head. The photos were of the interior of a warehouse. A hideout for a particular gang that was of moderate acquisition level. Which of course meant a stellar reward level, as well. Eriel, the elf that she was, smiled coyly, tilted her head and tapped her lips in an unsubtle hint.
Nat leaned back and stared at the girl distastefully.
“You blew someone.” The beastwoman's ears twitched as she offered a blank, unimpressed stare.

“I'll never reveal my sources.” The Elf winked.

Marie ignored the other two girls and took in each individual photo. “Alright. Does everyone see a door?”

“I got mine.” Nat nodded.

“Yep.” Eriel added.

“Then let's go.” Marie, the only Human in the group ordered with a wide grin. Each girl spread out across the room and found an unused door-frame.
“You've all got your fast-pass rings, right? Don't want a repeat of last time.” Marie offered a scolding glare to Eriel. The elf raised her hands and pointed to the ring around her wrist. Nat smiled and lifted her leg, showing that hers was hanging around her ankle. Marie did not have to check for hers, as it was hanging from her neck, hidden by her uniform so that it would be difficult to steal or lose. They opened their individual doors.

The physical doors lead nowhere, or lead into the outside world of the Academy City. As they pressed their fast-pass rings and thought about the locations of the doors in the photos, the blank doors opened into a brand new space. A bustling warehouse with various species working in white hazard equipment to assemble the ingredients of a popular drug. They arrived at different vectors surrounding the floor completely, just as planned. Marie cleared her throat with one hand while the other rested on a sheathed , curved sword at her side.
“You all have the right to remain silent.”

“Anything you say has a chance to doom you.” Nat smirked, cracking her knuckles loudly. As she spoke, the gangsters began to turn around and become aware of the girl's presence.

“The fuck?” One of the men questioned in a gruff tone.
“The hell is this!?” He asked loudly. It was likely the supervisor. A mammoth of a Wolf Beastfolk growled, his gaze flitting between each of them.
“What're you all just standing around for? Kill these bitches!”

“Uh oh!” Eriel gasped.
“Sounded like a threat, didn't it?”

“It did.” Marie agreed.

“Tried to warn them.” Nat claimed, hopping down from the catwalk she appeared on. She was poised to land directly on top of the Wolf supervisor.

“Idiot.” He growled, staring up intently, since she was falling directly into his grasp. Before he could close his massive arms around her she spun and changed direction in mid air, landed beside him and delivered an uppercut. The Wolf tried to clench his teeth in anticipation of the blow, but they cracked under the pressure of the punch as it connected with his jaw. Tears filled his eyes at the sensation of suddenly requiring severe dental work. He whined like a wounded animal and covered his snout. In response, Nat sent a punch into his toned stomach. The force moved directly through the Beastfolk's iron-like body and sent a few full beakers flying on the other side, behind his back.
“Oooh ow ow oww...” He wheezed, completely out of breath.
“Ar- Aurars!”

“Of course we are.” Beastfolk rolled her eyes.
“Where do you think you're trying to set up shop, 'idiot.'” She mocked.

Marie stared jovially at two men attempting to approach her. “The threat has been received and any aggressive moves made after that are considered an extension of said threat. There is no ambiguity in this argument for 'self-defense.'” She tightened her grip around the handle of her sword.

“That's bullshit!” A masked human, one of the two approaching her, complained.
“You came in and attacked US!”

Marie tapped her chin in thought. “Interesting interpretation. We should all visit the authorities and ask them together.” She was happy to offer, knowing that they would decline.

“Bitch!” The other human called out.

“Come on!” He rushed her. The sword was barely seen being drawn. The man stopped and looked down to see that his suit had been cut. He was somewhat annoyed as it was for safety purposes. Some of the materials were corrosive. Those were his thoughts as the top half of his body tumbled to the ground after the fact, leaving his lower half still standing for a few more seconds before it too tumbled over on top of his torso.

The man that originally complained raised his hands above his head, shaking. “I wan-wan-wanna lawyer!” He begged.

“Plenty where you're going.” Eriel teased, sticking her tongue out cheekily just before a blue bolt of energy passed right through the man's skull, dropping him.

Maria sighed deeply. “The legality of that act was questionable, Eriel.”

The Elf pointed her two fingers at another target. The first remained still while the other pulled back to her cheek. As it did another blue bolt formed. She made a releasing motion with her hand, sending it flying at another gang member holding a weapon to drop him, too.
“He was moving!” She argued.

“He was SHAKING.” Maria rolled her eyes. She was not too bothered, just annoyed. She stepped over the bodies towards the remaining gang members that were left. She addressed the three. Two humans and the Wolf that was curled over on the ground.
“Well, you all saw that. No shaking, no moving. Just surrendering.” The Human warned. The men exchanged nervous glances as the women closed in on them. Their eyes were covered, as well as their mouths. The wolf had a special mask for his elongated snout that offered no protection from punches.

“What do we do, boss?” One standing human whispered to another. At a loss, the Boss they were referring to looked around the room. Gradually he started to feel very lucky as the mess the Beastfolk girl caused was slowly reacting on it's table. A small fire was spreading to the other tubes and ingredients. He smirked and tightened his mask.
“Boss?” As he asked that one more time, the man shoved him abruptly over the table causing him and the whole mixture to explode suddenly. Little pieces of mook flew all over the warehouse in the explosion but more importantly it sent a deep black chemical smoke out into the enclosed space.

Nat felt a tugging at her ankle and Eriel at her wrist in the confusion. When the smoke cleared, all three were still a bit dizzy but no worse for wear. In actuality they felt amazing. Their heads were light and the world around them seemed far more colorful than before. Marie was a bit more giggly than normal as she spoke.
“Waz... Where'd they go? You all- all- alright?” She asked.

“Yeah.” Eriel blinked, staring at her hands.
“Wait... No! My fast-pass!”

“Mine's gone too...” Nat complained.

Marie should have been upset but she was happy her own was safe and she was pleased that they completed the mission, for the most part.
“Gang is mostly gone!” She exclaimed cheerily.
“I still have mine so we can get out of here through the same door.”

Nat rubbed her head, swaying where she stood. “Uhm... Losing two fast-pass rings cancels out the achievement a bit. Maybe keep that part quiet?”

“Agreed.” The other two girls said in sync. They stared at each other in a particularly giddy way and said in sync again.
“Jinx!” The two laughed.

“This stuff is kinda good.” Eriel admitted.
“Why's it illegal?”

“Because it's addictive” Marie answered frankly.

“But we're fine, right?” Nat asked

“Mmmm.” Marie smiled wide and offered a light shrug.
“Yeah! Probably.”

* *

The trio laughed loudly as they entered the class while it was in session. Once entering Marie quieted them down, since everyone else was looking at them.
“Shut- Shush it.” She whispered in a giggly tone.

“Can they tell we're high?” Nat asked with a worried expression.

“No way.” Eriel claimed, sitting down in her usual spot.

“Okay... Now that that distraction is over, as I was saying, who here can explain the 'fall' of magic and martial arts in the modern era.” The Teacher spoke in an annoyed tone. The busty, tall Dragonkin woman pushed her black frames up her nose and pointed at a board behind her with a long ruler. She was mostly human aside from stripes of red scales across her lightly tanned skin, dark horns at the side of her head and vibrant red eyes. The board had a timeline drawn on it. A Fox girl in front with green hair raised her hand.
“Sylvie. Thank you.” The Dragon pointed.

“With the advent of technology and the proliferation of Corechemy it became more accessible for the common man to gain tools that would put them on the same level of a low or mid-grade Aura or Soma practitioner. In the eyes of a common person, Magic seemed like a joke for that reason and fell out of favor and fell out of common parlance. However-”

“Thank you. That is an exceptional answer. I understand you were about to go into the subject of the next chapter in our texts. Thank you for reading ahead but I am afraid we must remain at a steady pace for the slower members of our class.” She gave a rather pointed stare to Nat and Eriel in particular. They just laughed quietly among themselves as the drug was still in effect in their system.
“Right...” The Dragon rolled her deep red eyes.
“Everyone please read up to the next chapter. As always: Those who do not learn from history are..?” She waited for everyone in the class to finish her sentence and was somewhat pleased with a very out of sync and unenthused:

“Doomed to repeat it.”