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Episode 1: Home, School, Hansity...

Grey stood in the shadows at the south western most corner of the gym, holding his metal staff close to his side. He was listening to what was happening around him. He could not see anything, the red chevrons on his uniform showed that well enough, for every student knew that they meant weakness. He was about five and a half feet tall and weighed 140 pounds. Due much to his blindness most people avoided fighting him, thinking he'd be easy to beat, however this time he had been summoned to a challenge. The Dean had been told to have him demonstrate his abilities to the superintendant. His opponent would arrive any moment and they would be lifted into the large arena where duels took place. The door at the north side of the gym opened and Leah walks in. She is a smaller, younger girl whom he immediately noticed was hiding something. Behind her was Daniel Hansity, the owner and dean of the school.

"Prepare to launch," ordered Hansity authoritatively.

"Rules of engagement?" asked Leah, as they mounted the platforms.

"The rules are as follows," He responded, "One, you will aim to disarm, not kill or wound. Two, the duel will end when one of you is disarmed, or one of you concedes. Three, the winner will be excused from all classes for a week, the work of which will be made up by the loser. Four, do not hold back. Do you understand?"

Both duelists nodded, and the dean said, "Good, now bow, and good luck to both of you." Grey bowed to Leah, Leah bowed back and the platforms shuttered as they began their fast journey to the brightly lit arena above. The young girl had a short sword strapped to her back, an odd choice for such a light-footed warrior. Both of the students remained bowed until the lifts stopped, and then they rose and stepped off of the platforms, onto the smooth, polished surface of the combat floor. Judging on sound alone, Grey determined that the stands were full of spectators, anxious to see the duel. Grey was not nervous, because he could not see all of the people looking down at them. However Leah was nervous, because to her every eye, every lens, every sonic prosthetic, was fixed on her small form. She blocked out their multitude of minds, obtaining the level of focus only a telepath can possess.

"Prepare weapons," ordered the school's Artificial Intelligence (A.I.), named Dash Nine. Grey spun his staff in a display of agility that surprised most of the crowd, many of whom had condemned him to defeat at the sight of the red chevron on his jacket. Leah reached up to grasp the hilt of sword, and twisted it to disengage the small latch that held the sword in its sheath. Grey began to understand her weapon choice, and prepared for a much more agile foe. She drew the blade, and held it vertical so that all could see the brilliantly polished blade.

"Ready," continued the computerized voice, and the room went quite. Seconds later a gong sounded and the two competitors crossed the ten feet between them, locking weapons within a heartbeat, sparks flying from as metal connect with metal at a startling speed. Leah back flipped out of the fight, having been forced up and away by the impact. She landed softly on her feet, much as a cat does from a short height. Leah dashed forward closing the distance between them again. Their weapons clashed several times before they both jumped backwards, clear out of reach of each other. Grey sprinted at Leah and struck out at her. She blocked, but her sword recoiled from the impact, cutting her bandana, barely missing her flesh. Again jumping back, Leah watched as the bandana fell, and surge of anger rushed through her.

In the crowd there were murmurs of shocked spectators, seeing cat ears on Leah's head for the first time. She let her tail unwrap from her waist. It was no good trying to hide it any more, people knew what she was and this made her a target unless she stood her ground. She charged at Grey and attempted to stab at his chest.

Grey reacted with lightning speed, first knocking the sword up, then down quickly. The sword fell out of Leah's hand, and was pinned beneath Grey's foot. Grey's staff was pointed at her chest. Leah was embarrassed, sad, angry, and shy all in the same moment. Both combatants panted heavily, but stayed still until they were dismissed, at which point Leah took her sword and Sprinted out.

Grey felt a pang of sadness, he had not meant to reveal her secret, and she had given him a pretty good fight not even thinking about going easy as far as he could tell. Grey ran after her. When he reached Leah, she was in a corner of a small, unused hallway, crying.

"Hey," Grey whispered. Leah turned away from him, tears in her eyes. "What's your name?" Grey persisted, hoping not to be too pushy.

"Leah," She whimpered, "why, what do you want? To embarrass me more?"

"No, no, I want to apologize, and offer a secret of my own to you, if it will make you feel any better," Grey replied, sincerity thick in his voice.

"What?" Leah said, unbelievingly, "Surely you don't have a secret as horrible as mine."

"Oh really?" Grey asked. Leah felt a shift in his telepathic energy and her vision blurred. When she was able to see clearly again, standing before her was an anthropomorphic fox, standing as high and in the same position as Grey had been just a few seconds ago.

"Grey?" Leah asked, surprised.

"Yes, this is the real me," Grey replied. Leah looked into Grey's eyes, which seemed to stare endlessly into space.

Grey tensed and said "we better go; the crowd is going to be here soon. Oh and forget about the work, I got it"

The two mutants went to the locker rooms, standard procedure for when the crowd is going crazy. When they were told by Dash Nine that it was safe to leave they went to the dean's office and waited for him to commend their duel.

"Dismissed until further notice, including classes," was all that Daniel Hansity said. Grey walked out, closely followed by Leah. They had a respect for each other now; they had shared secrets, a long tradition of the "hearts of Hansity", the small group of loving couples that became of the school body.

They walked together to the dormitories and discovered that they are in fact neighbors. They nodded and entered their suites. Each Suite is home to 16 students with the exception of one, which is home to 4, and all of the empty ones. Leah lived in the one undermanned suite, called the cat room by older students, because the large number of cat girls that had lived there in the paste, usually coming to really bad ends. She frowned knowing that she was in fact one of the relatively few that had been unwillingly revealed in combat.

She lay down on her bed; none of her roommates were back yet and she had time to rest. It was late, nighttime to be exact, when Leah heard Grey get called down to the Dean's office.

"Grey please sit," Hansity said, looking out the window at the town below. "You're a very skilled fighter, and you do it blind to, how would you like to teach a class next semester?"

"Well, sure," Grey replied taken aback. Hansity did show much favor or hand out many compliments so this came as a shock to Grey.

Leah shot up as the door to her suite opened, she calmed down when she realized that the intruder was Muse, her roommate. She had been crying, she thought that people would stop liking her, but she couldn't stop thinking about Grey. He had shared his secret; he had shown her his true form, willingly. If he could do that, then she could live with everyone knowing her secret.