Tock.

Nathan watched as Eleanor Guciardo slowly turned around, her eyes widening when she took in the scene of the violently-killed seniors and blood-soaked room. Then, she she started clutching her chest, gasping for breath, and began to fall to the ground.

He didn't make a move to stop her, just watched as she had the heart attack. He could tell it was going to kill her, so there wasn't really a use trying to save her.

The four surviving seniors in that class looked at each other. They had been momentarily disoriented by their sudden shift in position, and Keith looked especially uncomfortable and had turned a sickly pale.

"What's wrong?" Michael asked him.

"My familiar doesn't like the sudden shift back into reality," Keith answered. "He really wants to be let out."

"Hold out as long as you can," Nathan told him, and Keith nodded.

The students then began to wait, knowing something would happen without their needing to provoke it. Everyone had agreed before the Final Challenge to simply wait for instructions once out of the game, so they knew the other four would be doing the same as them.

Nine minutes later, one of the school's vice-principals opened the door to their classroom, quickly recoiling. By the cloth held over his mouth, they could tell that he had already been to several rooms and knew the stench of so much blood was affecting him.

"Four of you?" He asked.

"Four of us," Nathan stated as the vice-principal looked around the room. "Do you mind if we get cleaned-up or something?"

"How old are you?"

"We're all eighteen," Nathan answered. "Do you mind?"

"We've been asked to gather you in the-"

"Pardon the interruption, teachers," the PA went live. "This is Mr. Heckler, your principal. We have a Code Red in the 600 Hall. I repeat we have a Code Red in the 600 Hall. This is not a drill."

"Let's go," the vice-principal said. "That'll keep things from being spread around at first, and others from gawking. We're heading to the ACR room, since no one's in there."

The four seniors stood and followed him out, not bothering to grab their backpacks, though Nathan noticed Keith quickly slipping a hand into his own, likely sending something into his Item Box.

The ACR classroom was empty, save for the principal and Elise. Around ten minutes later, all eight seniors who survived the Tutorial were present.

"Alright," Mr. Heckler said to the survivors. "We're not sure what's going on, but when we called it in, we were told to lock down the school and gather the surviving seniors who were eighteen. Looks like it was just the eight of you. Some government agents should be here soon."

As Mr. Heckler finished, the door opened, a man in a suit entered, followed by two men in full, black combat gear. The newcomer introduced himself as Adrian Samtol, an agent of DSIS, though he didn't give the full name for the organization. He explained that their school had been made subject to a biological attack that targeted only eighteen-year-old students.

After verifying they were each eighteen, the agent led the eight of them outside into an erected tent, where they were hosed down and given some fresh clothes while being briefed on their future. They were being moved into temporary custody of the government until it was determined that they were 'clean' of the biological agent, then observed for awhile just in case. They would finish off their senior year at the facility.

As soon as the students were alone with the agents, the principal having left them, Keith stepped forward.

"You know what's really going on," he said. "My familiar didn't take the transition between there and here too well, and I really, really, really need to let him loose, but it needs to be private. I can't have anyone seeing him. It'll be just a few minutes."

"You're already a magician?" Agent Samtol asked.

"Yeah," Keith nodded. "Elise was as well, though I'm the only one with a familiar. The others are all awakened, and they know about the situation."

"How?"

"I'm a genius hacker who cracked your systems?" Keith offered. "Anyway, I really, really need to let him out, but it really, really needs to be in private."

"Are you okay?" Agent Samtol asked. "You actually look kind of-"

"NOW!" Nathan roared, and the agent stumbled back a few steps. "Or do I need to kill every fucker in here so Keith can have some privacy? He doesn't like others seeing his familiar, and only the seven of us are trusted enough for it! Now give us ten minutes, or I start killing!"

The agent hesitated for a moment, then nodded, giving his men the signal. He knew the students were likely volatile, and they weren't prepared to subdue them if they got violent.

As soon as the eight seniors were alone, Keith thanked Nathan, then pulled off the shirt he'd been given.

Immediately, the markings turned into the wings they manifested as, then into his familiar, whose usually-clear water was tinged with yellow and green, its elements moving slowly.

A few moments later, a thick, brown sludge started dropping out of the swirling mass, which began to pick up speed, returning close to its normal state.

"You okay?" Keith asked his familiar as the others watched, realizing it had just puked.

"That explains why he looked so pale," Samantha told Nathan, who nodded.

The seniors watched as Keith talked with his familiar for a few minutes, then it flew around for a bit, flying over to Nathan and 'nuzzling' him, until Keith pulled him back in, promising to really let him loose the first chance he got.

After ten minutes, Agent Samtol returned with a few more soldiers, and fixed his gaze on Nathan.

"In the future, please refrain from-"

"We aren't like the other pussies who made it out," Nathan growled. "All thirty-two of us survived the Final Challenge. The fucking game didn't tell us only eight were allowed to make it out. I'm not exactly in a pleasant mood right now, so watch your tone, because I will kill you."

"Okay," Samantha put a hand on his arm. "Please calm down, Nathan."

"What's that?" One of the soldiers gestured to the thick sludge.

"Looks like the puke of a-" Agent Samtol began, then swiftly turned his gaze to Keith. "You have a water elemental?"

"That was there when we got here," Nathan growled.

"Nathan," Samantha started, and he gave her a glare.

"It. Was. Here. When. We. Got. Here," Nathan said, then looked at Keith. "Burn it away. Leave no trace."

Keith sighed, muttered something about how he didn't really work well with fire, then started burning away his familiar's vomit. When he finished, he looked at the agent.

"It's probably best not to piss off Nathan," Keith told him. "He's, ah, pretty protective of us and he doesn't know you. And he'll say 'fuck the government' if it tries to stop him."

Agent Samtol took a deep breath, then addressed the seniors.

"We'll be taking you to a facility," he told them. "It's a school we bought specifically for the victims of this thing. We just got it up and running a couple of days ago, and we'll run some tests on you there."

"Oh, so it's already open," Keith said.

"And we'll talk with you about your hacking," Agent Samtol said, then looked at the eight seniors. "Psychiatric help will be available, if you wish for it, and everything you say there will be confidential. We're aware of the dueling session that happens in Challenge 6 – you won't be held accountable for anything that happened during the game.

"Your families may visit," he continued. "But they cannot go past the school's front lobby, nor past the front lawns and parking. We're currently having a building erected off the parking for the visitation. Unless they already know about magic, they're restricted there. This is to decrease issues."

"Will we be living there permanently?" Mitchell asked.

"At least for the rest of the year," the agent answered. "We want to keep you under watch as much as we can – you're forced back in over and over again, it seems, but for different things, and you can go back willingly as well. From the other three incidents in the US, there are only five total survivors still around."

A soldier walked into the tent and approached the agent, whispering to him, though the students all understood him just fine.

"Alright," the agent said. "I've just been informed-"

"That our transportation is ready," Nathan said. "We know. Awakened, and you're only a couple of feet from us. I'm hungry."

"Why don't we wait for them to feed us?" Samantha suggested to him. "We're all hungry."

"I'm hungry now," Nathan said, and Samantha sighed.

"You know," Keith snorted. "I love the fact that Nathan isn't the kind of guy to just get whipped by the girl he likes."

"Is that what you look for in a guy?" Nathan looked at him curiously. "Is that why you don't want to shove yourself all the way into Michael? Because he'd probably get whipped the moment he got serious with a girl?"

Keith blushed as Nathan smirked, the other seniors groaning heavily.

Agent Samtol managed to usher the students into a trio of waiting SUV's, with Nathan refusing to let Samantha out of his sight, forcing the agents to let them ride together, with Keith in the other seat. It was as they were riding in silence that Samantha noticed that Keith had, at some point, put his contacts back in.

"When did you put them back in?" Samantha whispered in his ear.

"I was wearing them when we were put into the game," he whispered back. "So they were on when we returned. Kind of glad for it, to be honest – you guys will probably keep it a secret, but I'd rather not be advertised as a full psychic just yet."

"Got it," she whispered, then looked at Nathan… who was eating dried fruit. "Uh, Nathan?"

"What?" He asked.

"Your food came out with you?"

"He probably took it from his backpack before we left the classroom," Keith told her. "Nathan always had dried fruit and beef jerky in it."

"You noticed?" Nathan asked.

"Yeah," Keith answered. "Though I'm not sure how long you'd been doing it before I noticed, since I only started watching you-"

He clamped his mouth shut, and Nathan snorted.

"March 18th, two years ago," Nathan said, causing Keith to blush. "Yes, I noticed."

"He notices everything," Samantha told Keith, then smirked and looked at Nathan. "So do you think he'd be able to satisfy Michael? I haven't seen it."

"What makes you think I have?"

"You've had P.E. with him," she said. "I'm sure you can tell every guy who had a boner while changing in your area of perception, and how big they are."

"He's bigger than Michael."

"Really?" She asked. "That's impressive. Is he bigger than you?"

"I wish," Keith muttered.

"Is that longer, thicker, or both?"

"Both," Keith muttered.

"Wait, hold on," Samantha said. "Three of the five surviving guys have massive dicks? Do Mitchell and William, too?"

"Yeah," Keith nodded. "I, uh, don't think that's relevant, Samantha. Plus, you, Kendra, and Elise have different-sized chests. You've the smallest, while Kendra's are pretty, you know. And Elise just has average-sized."

"Did you just say I have a flat chest?" Samantha asked, then yelped when she felt Nathan groping them. "Nathan! There are two agents in the front seat!"

Two agents who were doing their best not to laugh, though she wasn't going to comment that, even if the two guys probably knew.

"They feel pretty fine to me," Nathan commented, pulling his hand back. "You aren't flat-chested. And besides, smaller chests look better when naked. And they're the perfect size to hold and-"

"No!" She smacked his arm. "Stop that! We aren't alone!"

"I'd be undressing you if we were."

Samantha groaned, putting her head into her hands.

"So how many of the finals people had bigger dicks?" Keith asked curiously. "I only knew the sizes of three of them, other than us."

"Four," Nathan answered. "Had above-average dicks, that is, dicks over five-and-three-quarters of an inch in length. And you're only a quarter of an inch shorter and same for thicker. So nothing to be shy about, Keith."

"…have you seen me naked?"

"I've seen you sleeping, yes."

"Have you undressed me?"

"You were pretty naked when I saw you."

"Naked and hard?"

"Very," Nathan nodded. "So I decided to see who was bigger. Felt satisfied it was me."

"When was that?"

"In the game, two nights ago."

"You've snuck out while we were sleeping?" Samantha asked.

"How often did you wake with me still in the bed?"

The other two seniors stared at him for a few long minutes before either of them spoke up.

"How many of us did you measure?" Keith asked.

"I am confident in that I had the biggest dick of the last hundred living guys. You had the second-biggest."

"Michael?"

"Fourth-biggest, fifth-thickest."

"Who was third, and third and fourth?"

"Mitchell, Brent Karp, Samuel Sparks."

"You really went around measuring guys in their sleep?"

"Not all of them were asleep," Nathan said. "If they weren't hard, I woke them up so that they could get themselves hard. Most weren't hard, and most were disappointed when they found out they were shorter."

"So you weren't naked?" Samantha asked.

"Fuck no," Nathan growled. "I wasn't going to whip it out and compare like that. I wrote up a list of everyone's sizes. We used pictures of hot chicks to get them hard. Not you, though."

Samantha and Keith stared at Nathan for a few moments, before both let out a sigh in unison.

"Why am I not surprised?" Samantha said. "You really did that just to find out who had the biggest dick?"

"I can write up the ranking list if you want," Nathan answered.

"Did you go around measuring boob sizes, too?"

"I don't have boobs and yours are perfect, so there was no need to see how yours compared to another," Nathan said, then held up his hand. "Chocolate-covered blueberry?"