82 The search for a Rat

The students had just been informed that the portal expedition that was meant to be going on today, would be cancelled. Although many people didn't know the reason why, they had a good guess that it might have had something with the two students who didn't arrive in class today.

Students didn't just, not turn up to class for no reason. The city was their whole life, the school was their whole life. For the next two years, everything you did there would decide your future.

Layla had been planning to confront Peter on the situation especially since he had been acting so strangely but before she could even get to him, he had already run away.

"Come on Erin, let's go find out what he's hiding," Layla said but as she took a few steps forward she noticed that Erin wasn't following her.

"Erin?"

"I have no need to get involved in your affairs. I don't really care what happened to the other two. I hardly knew them before choosing to team up with them." Erin replied.

"Look at it this way right. You said you wanted to create the strongest team in the class yeah? You and Vorden are clearly the strongest in this class and if you want to outperform the others form the other classes, you're going to have to team up with each other. Our team has already registered and I don't even know if they can find a replacement, so we might not even be allowed to take part in the expedition."

After hearing Layla's last words her eyes suddenly lit up.

"What did you say? Let's go find that Rat."

The two of them now working together started to look around the school to see if they were any signs of Peter anywhere but the two were unable to find him. They knocked on his dorm room door a few times as well but there was no answer. The dorm room doors each opened via a fingerprint sensor on the door handle.

So even if Peter was in his room the two of them wouldn't have been able to enter. They could have waited outside but the longer they waited the more Layla started to worry about Quinn.

If he was unable to get blood, she knew first-hand what Quinn could do.

As they continued to search for Peter, they still couldn't find him but they did find a group of people who might have known where he was. It was Earl and his group of five other boys.

"Haven't I seen them hang around with Peter a few times at breakfast?"

The group were inside one of the training centres. This one in particular, was filled with testing equipment that they used on new students and was also an area where students were able to practise on the machines.

If they had increased their ability level or obtained new skills, they could test themselves on the machines, write down the scores and hand them to staff to upgrade the status on their wristwatch.

If Layla was on her own, she would have never approached the group but she had Erin by her side.

"Hey guys," Layla said with a smile as she approached the group of boys.

Before replying Earl took a glance at her wristwatch and saw that she was only a level 2.

"What do you want?" Earl replied.

Layla's eyebrow started to twitch hearing Earls rotten attitude and tone in his voice, but she was used to this. She had her fair share of bad treatment at her own school.

"We're not here looking for trouble, just wondering if you knew where Peter was?" She said putting on a fake smile.

The group looked at each other and started to laugh.

"Looks like they really aren't his real friends, I knew something was going on." She thought.

"Peter?" Earl said, "I wouldn't be surprised if that kid tried running out of the city by now."

"Yeah Earl, I can't believe he actually did it, if I did that, I know I'd never be able to live with myself." One of the men standing behind Earl said.

Earl immediately turned his head and gave a scorn look at the man.

"Sorry, Earl." He said.

"Anyway, buzz off you two, we're not saying a single thing, if you want to find Peter then go find him yourself."

Although Layla was annoyed, there was nothing she could do, she wanted to stand her ground and beat the information out of them, but Earl was a lever four user, while the rest behind him were similar level to herself.

She had no choice but to turn and head back on her search for Peter. As she walked off the group started to laugh but as soon as she passed Erin, she realised she wasn't following her once again.

"Where are you going?" Erin asked.

"To find peter, these guys won't tell us anything."

"I see no reason for us to find Peter anymore," Erin replied.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, these people clearly by their conversation earlier either know what Peter did or at least also know where Vorden and Quinn are." Erin then started to walk up to the group of five. "I don't want to waste any more time."

Mist and frost started to form just above her hands and suddenly, a fully formed ice spear had appeared. Before the other students could even react, she had already thrown the ice spear hitting Earl on his shoulder and pinning him against one of the drum's that were used to show a student's power.

As Earl's body landed on the drum the numbers started to rise until it eventually stopped at twenty. The group watching this knew she was strong but the machine had only confirmed their fears.

The group had no intention of fighting back after seeing Erin powers they knew their place was under someone like her.

However, she didn't care, she then placed both of her hands on the ground and a trail of ice started to appear travelling across the floor eventually reaching the group's leg's and freezing them all in place.

"Now which one of you is going to tell me what I want to know first," Erin said.