The Curious Case of the Fantastic Feline Figure (ON HOLD)

Chapter 3- The Arbiter And The All-Seeing

Tom could not focus on his History lesson when he got back from lunch. Not that Quill's lessons on the Viking era weren't exciting, they were actually rather enjoyable, at least his first one. Rather it was the impending lesson in the gym. Physical education, or rather at this school, fight training. In a school of people with powers, where people were made of gold or could control blood, what exactly could having a cat head provide? A fairly nasty bite? As Tom's mind spiralled deeper into worry of his next lesson, far less than an hour away now, his eyes caught sight of something, lying in the dark ceiling corner. A swivelling, living eye, staring right at him.

The back of his chair collapsing to the floor, Tom shuffled backwards on the floor, pointing at the eye and gibbering. Laughs were exchanged around the class as Quill helped Tom to his feet.
"A few hours then, Tom?" Quill noted as Tom tried to regain composure. "It normally takes students less than half a hour to notice. Though I suppose you must have had a lot to take in."
"What... is that thing." Tom retuned, breathless and panicked.
"That's Argus, he's our head of security."
Noting the presumed confusion still on Tom's catlike face, Quill continued, saying "His power is named Illuminatus, it means he can create functioning eyes that he can see through anywhere in a certain radius. So he can see what's going on in all places."
"All places?" Tom asked, incredulously.
"He's respectful of the places it matters, like the bathrooms and student housings." Quill reassured. "Just try to ignore the eyes."
Slightly more reassured, Tom sat back up straight on his chair but it hardly felt like five minutes had passed before people were packing up their books. Naturally, Tom did the same, if reluctantly and far slower. The more he thought about it, the more concern he had about going to the gym. As much as he wanted to ask Quill about staying out of the lesson, Tom found himself caught in the swarm of students leaving the classroom.
"Alright, enjoy your training, and I'll see you all in an hour for Music!" Quill called out to the exiting students. And before he could ask anything else, Tom was out the door.

Not knowing exactly where he was going yet, Tom manoeuvred through the crowd until he found himself with his three roommates. Despite how excited they seemed for the lesson, Tom still couldn't shift his feeling of impending doom. It was as if he already knew something bad was going to happen in the next lesson. Still, he shook off his nerves and proceeded onwards towards the gym.

The gym itself, Tom thought, was enormous. Combat arenas had been set out across the floor, sectored off by red tape. The tutor himself looked a lot younger than Quill, his hair shorter, lighter brown and sticking up in strange places. His jaw was fairly chiselled and he was pretty athletic looking in general.
'Fitting', Tom thought, 'for a gym teacher,' even though he knew that the skills taught here wouldn't very easily translate to regular gym activities.
"Alright, you know the drill, pair up and- oh yeah, a new kid!" the new teacher spoke jovially, before turning to Tom. "Hey there, I'm Arby, I'm the gym head here, I do the fun lessons. But with you here, there's twenty one students which is one left over, so... David, Dominic! You two pair up!"
Two particularity nerdy and delighted looking students very quickly paired up with each other.
"Might actually do some work in this class for once," Arby muttered under his voice, before continuing speaking to the whole class.
"Okay then, I drew straws before class and paired you up for the start of class. You know the drill, six rotations, six spars, we don't fight to win or lose, just to train. No external items, unless of course they're necessary for your power to work."
Tom noticed Arby's looking almost straight at Libitina for just a second as he said this, before he focused back to the rest of the class.
"Don't talk outside your sparring partner, don't aim for vitals, yada yada. Alright, now let's pair you all up!"

"Hey, Arby, can we talk?" Tom asked, approaching the teacher as his classmates got paired up.
"What do you wanna talk about, uh, Tom?" Arby answered, cheerfully bouncing on the spot.
"I, well, I don't think I'm going to be very good at fighting." Tom responded, solemnly but truthfully. "I mean, everyone else has their powers to help them, and they've already been training here, and-"
"So you think your power is useless?" Arby interrupted, to which Tom could only give a small nod.
"Kid, listen to me. You might just have the head of a cat, but think about what that means. Your teeth are sharper, you can see in the dark. Have you even tried focusing your hearing? Because I assure you, if you did, you'd find you could pinpoint sounds to their exact location. Your sense of smell is ten times better than it used to be! And when you figure out your whiskers, you'll be able to fight with your eyes shut, kid! So don't give up on yourself yet."
Slightly more uplifted, Tom turned back to the class and the one person left, waiting to spar against him- Mika.