Lesson Two - Second Years

Cobalt was sat at his desk, feeling rather bored. It was to be expected after all. He'd gone from globe-trotting holidays with his daughter one week to spending his days cooped up in an office or a classroom the next so, understandably, he was bored.

Sighing a little bit, Cobalt wrote the title of today's lesson on the board.

Assassination.

Haley walked tiredly into the infiltration classroom. She nodded slightly to professor Smith and then took a seat in the middle of the room. Then she noticed the headline on the black board. Assassination.

A lump gathered in Haley's throat, but she swallowed it quickly. Her face went completely emotionless and cold. But she was pinching her thigh under the table. She stared intently at the word as if she could stare it away. And she was longing for the class to be over. She was pretty sure she wouldn't mind getting out at the end of it.

Airen entered the classroom. He saw Professor Smith looking bored and thought it had something to do with the new term. He decided not to ask. Looking up at the board, he gulped slightly at the title. He'd been once told by his mentors at the Swordmage Academy that he was gifted in this area, but he was reluctant to accept that kind of role.

He sat down in the front of the classroom and got ready for the lesson, no matter if it was a dark topic.

Charlotte smiled softly and walked into her fathers classroom, she had had the best holiday especially when they finished it with a whistlestop tour of Brazil and attending one of the many Carnivals there, she couldn't be more dissappointed at going back to school.

Seeing that Haley and Airen were already there she waved at both of them, taking a swift glance at what was on the board Charlotte bit her lip and decided it would be best not to speak. It was a touchy subject for most, especially with the magical war.

Keiba sat down next to a sickly-looking Haley, wondering what was up. She glanced at the board, and suddenly she knew. Although assassination had been glorified in the muggle world, she couldn't help but think too many people died unnecessarily because of it. Haley looked very pale. Keiba nudged her. "Hey," she said softly, trying to get her attention off the nasty word on the board.

Haley looked shocked up as a voice called for her attention. She looked to her side and saw Keiba sitting next to her. Haley released a breath she didn't know she was holding.

"Hey," she said calmly, letting go of the word on the blackboard, "You ready for what is doomed to be a horrible yet interesting class?"

"It indeed looks to be that way," Keiba said, on the verge of a small smile when Haley noticed her. "So, I take it you're not exactly looking forward to it. Me neither, I think the muggles have romanticised it a bit too much for my liking."

"I agree," Haley said, though that wasn't quite it.

She just valued life way too much to kill someone. Even someone she hated. Or, at least she thought so. If she ever met her parents' killer, she was pretty sure she'd be extremely mad, but still, it wouldn't be all like 'AVADA KEDAVRA' either.

"Besides, assassination isn't much what I'm wanting to learn. I want to be able to sneak in and out without being noticed, getting the info I need, without having to kill people. Wishful thinking, I know. But where would the world be if no one had belief in good?" Haley then asked softly.

"Too right you are, my girl," Keiba agreed. "I'd much rather get information than purposefully kill someone. I can't stand seeing people get hurt, let alone die. It just breaks my heart," she grimaced.

Haley smiled to Keiba, knowing she understood what Haley meant.

"Agreed," she said softly.

But the word nagged her head as if it wanted to break a dark part of her free for others to see.

"Well," said Keiba. "I just guess we'll have to do this class and hopefully learn to move on with it. You never know, maybe Professor Smith's not actually making us learn how to do assassination, rather protect ourselves from it. You know, like learn different techniques that should someone want to use to kill us, we could counteract them to keep ourselves alive."

She smiled gently. That would certainly make life better, in this class anyway. Even though doubt was niggling at the back of her head, she clung to the notion like a lifeline, desperately wishing it would be true.

Charlotte raised her eyebrow at the talking and her hair fizzled bright red to match her eyes, she couldn't believe people were talking in class again! And in her fathers class no less!

Glaring at the table in front of her, Charlotte kept quiet but she made a note to make sure that Papa knew she wasn't happy with chattering, she just wanted people to be respectful of their professors, perhaps Charlotte was biased because it was her father, but she felt like that in every lesson.

Victoria was anxious for this class. She had been completely unprepared for the battle last year, and that scared her. So she made sure to sign up for this class, and dueling. She figured they would be more valuable than some of her other classes, but she couldn't bare letting them go.

As she entered, she noticed a lot of students had already arrived. She hoped she hadn't missed the beginning already. Noting the word on he board, she hoped Tess was taking this class. Not that she was scared, but having a friend there to learn these things with was helpful.

She silently took her seat and waited for the lesson to start.

Cobalt sighed silently, the slightly higher rise in his chest as he inhaled the only indication that he'd done so at all. Closing his eyes, he called upon his rather limited wandless abilities. Breathing out slowly, Cobalt locked onto Keiba before blurring into motion.

Faster than any of the children could hope to react, Cobalt flew across the room, slamming his right hand palm first in the centre of Keiba's chest. Out of Keiba's back, a bloody blade burst out, showering the desk behind her with blood. Thankfully for the other students the desk behind Keiba was empty. But Keiba now appeared to have a small blade straight through her.

It was, of course, a lie.

The blade, the blood and the wound disappeared as if they had never existed. The reason why? Because they had never existed. It had all been a very elaborate illusion, the only piece of illusionary magic Cobalt could perform wandlessly and silently. So all Keiba had for her habit of talking was a slightly sore chest and one hell of a scare. Taking his hand away, Cobalt popped out a real wrist blade, cutting the desk with it to show that it was real,

"You will be silent in my classroom Miss Namid." he told her coldly, "In this classroom, in this subject, idle chatter gets you killed. Remember that."

Popping the wrist blade away again, Cobalt moved over to the board and tapped it, just bellow the word 'Assassination',

"Who can tell me the most important element of a successful assassination?"

Airen jumped as Cobalt seemed to flash across the classroom to Keiba and kill her. His mouth fell open in shock that a teacher would attack a student. However, when the blood and the blade vanished into thin air and revealed that Keiba was, in fact, alive and well, Airen sighed in relief.

At Cobalt's wrist blade appearing, Airen frowned in concentration. He'd seen it before, but where? Suddenly, it hit him. The wrist blade, the topic, it all made sense. it was from the muggle video game series. He'd played it and loved it, but he thought it was fiction. Maybe some aspects were, but the weapon, he thought it was just for show. Guess not.

Airen raised his hand. "To catch your target off guard and be stealthy," he answered, although his voice dimmed at the last word. People could still hear it, but it was laced with self doubt.

Keiba's eyes widened as Professor Smith shoved a blade through her chest. There was a very small twinge, but nothing too painful. She stared down at his hand in amazement. How on earth was he doing that? Fascinating. He pulled it out and the fake blood disappeared. Her chest felt like she'd over stretched it while in the middle of a bad cold (tight and wheezy)- but that wasn't anything she hadn't felt before. Tentatively, she reached up and poked her sternum, checking there wasn't any actual damage. Which there wasn't. Keiba sighed inwardly with relief.

Before she knew it, he was reprimanding her for whispering with Haley. She didn't want to get into anymore trouble, so Keiba didn't apologise verbally, just blinked slowly at him. Besides, the Professor was already moving on and starting the lesson.

To her, Airen's answer seemed very logical. That appeared to be almost exactly what Professor Smith had just done to her... caught her off guard. But, she had to admit, it wasn't very stealthy, because everyone in the room had seen it happen.

"Professor," she said, raising her hand. "A successful assassination should be done like what Airen said... but you should still remain undetected. If you get caught, then you've failed."

Parker swallowed hard as he quickly, but quietly hurried down the hall. This was one class he was scared witless of being late too, more so by missing it. Flashes of all the terribly frightening things he's seen the man do flashed through his mind. He felt himself pale and start sweating. He tried to calm himself down as much as possible as he neared the door, the handle sliding slightly in his sweaty palm.

He ducked his head as he walked in, trying to be completely silent so as not to disturb the class as they'd already started. He took the closest seat, sitting stock still, staring forward with wide eyes at the board.

Victoria would be the first to admit she didn't know much about assassination. Or attacks at all. But she thought it would be best if the person didn't look assassinated really. Like they had just had an accident, or died in their sleep.

She raised her hand to add on to the answers already given. "Wouldn't it be good to make it look like the death was natural. So no foul play is expected at all?"

She was genuinely curious if he would agree with her. He seemed like a man that worked on strength alone to get buy. Someone who didn't fear people knowing he'd killed someone. Would that much secrecy seem important to him?

Cobalt noticed the interest in his wrist blade and he couldn't say he blamed them for not really believing what they saw. He'd stolen the idea for it from a muggle video game after all. Wrist blades had already existed of course, but none with the very fancy mechanism to make them pop out. Unless, of course, you extended the blade with magic so that it popped out. He nodded,

"The target being off guard is a very good point, not the main point, but good. Five points to Gryffindor." he also nodded at Victoria, "That is also a very good method, albiet much harder. Another five points to Gryffindor."

Without looking away from his class, Cobalt pointed directly at Parker,

"Five points from slytherin for being late Mr Emery." he glanced at the boy, "Make sure it doesn't happen again."

He clapped his hands together,

"Both Airen and Victoria have raised very good points. But the closest to the answer I was looking for was Keiba." he smiled a little bit, "Detection... doesn't really matter. Stealth... is optional. The key to success is to simply not get caught."

Cobalt pointed to Keiba,

"My earlier demonstration was a viable assassination because, although outnumbered greatly, none of you would have been able to even slow me down in my escape." he nodded to Keiba, "Ten points to Ravenclaw. Now... I want two methods of assassination from each of you! If you cannot give two you will lose house points. If you give more than two you lose house points. Begin."

Haley had gone completely blank when what happened to Keiba happened, and then proved not to happen. But the blood made Haley clench her teeth and look murderously at the professor. Then Keiba was all right and the blood was gone. Haley shook her head and then felt a chill run down her spine. She was really changing from the once happy and nice girl to someone who would kill anyone messing with her friends. But she would never have managed to kill professor Smith, of course. Not only because she wouldn't have even gotten near him, though that was a fairly good point, but also because it would hurt Charlotte. And Charlotte was Haley's friend. She would never hurt her friends, no matter what reason.

When professor Smith ordered them to say two methods of assassination, Haley raised her hand.

"I'm ... well, what I'm thinking of is kind of muggle ways of assassination, but I hope that doesn't matter," Haley said and continued, "And I'm thinking of Samurais. They're trained for assassination and they do what they are asked to do. They come, slash and are gone. They're seriously quick and it takes a lot to catch a samurai. Another method, once again muggle, is something I've seen often in movies, where they have a gun with a, well, I don't know the word, but it reduces the sound of the bang from the gun and no one will know where the bullet came from before it is too late," Haley finished.

(OOC: I hope you did mean saying out loud in class. If not... Sorry^^)

Charlotte blinked at what Cobalt did to Keiba and was sure that she had even gasped a little bit and moved to help her if she could, but she was so relieved when it turned out to only be an illusion and her hair slowly turned back to it's White colour.

When Papa asked them to give two methods of assassination Charlotte waited until Haley had finished and raised her hand with an unsure look on her face, not wanting to get points deducted.

"You could also use poison in a meal if you've infiltrated prior to the Mark arriving or you could use poison on a weapon like a dart. The second method could also be a direct hit with any instrument, for example a senbon needle to the seven main kill points in the body."

Charlotte stopped and blushed, she hoped that Cobalt wouldn't punish her for going over the top. Or ask where she got that information from.

Airen nodded at the professor's instruction. He listened to the various methods. He agreed with a lot of them, but he thought that a few were missing. He racked his brain for methods that could possibly work. He remembered in a history lesson given at the Swordmage Academy about the Cold War and about the umbrella assassin. Another way presented itself in the form of muggle entertainment.

He knew the part Haley was talking about. "Silencer," he said briefly.

He raised his hand. "One method, sir, is to conceal your weapon into an everyday device, like that one person did in the Cold War with the umbrella. Another is to cause a distraction somewhere else, and hit them while all the attention is elsewhere," he finished, blushing and feeling exposed. He hoped he didn't sound to knowledgable in assassination, because he wasn't. He just had a good memory.

Being pointed out, Parker felt his face heat up in the embarrassment of losing some house points. He stared down at his desk, listening to what they had been learning about. Assassination? Was he serious? And everyone seemed to just be going along with it so fine.

Guns and samurai's. Poison and kill points, whatever those were. Conceal and distract. What else. He closed his eyes trying to wrack his brain. He didn't want to participate, it being so morbid a thing for being so young, but he had to. He didn't want to lose any more points.

"Erm, you could somehow...corner the person. Make them feel they've got no way out and make sure no one else has anyway in. After, you escape and no one knows how it was done. Like- a high up, locked room, but with open windows. You chase them into the room where they lock the doors from the inside, then go around and scale the building, entering and exiting through the window. With the doors locked from the inside, no one will know how it was done." He took a deep break. "Elaborating on that. You could also make it look like a suicide. Force a note, do it in a way that looks like a suicide. Maybe even force them to actually do it themself..."

Parker felt a bit sick to his stomach, being able to put together such an elaborate scheme pieced together from the many old films he would watch with his neighbor back home. He definitely thought he could have spared this until a later year, at this pace, he may actually want them to kill someone in the future. With that thought he felt himself pale. What was he even doing in this class if it bothered him so much? He sighed, looking back down at his desk.

Cobalt nodded at each other the suggested solutions to the 'assassination' problem. Of course he was a bit surprised that his daughter knew about kill zones. She'd gotten the number right as well, if only major kill zones were counted. That was most surprising. It was also refreshing to note that some of the class suggested muggle means of assassination. Parker's description was a bit long, but he decided to keep from taking points as it was very well thought out. He nodded to his class,

"Very good class!" he declared, writing the list down on the blackboard, "Now a little task... a little mental activity."

Gun
Sword
Poison
Kill Point Strikes
Concealed Weapon
Distraction Kill
Isolated Kill
'Assisted Suicide'

Happy with his student's work, Cobalt gestured to the list,

"The situation is this. You have just infiltrated a garden party, full of the rich and famous." he told them firmly, "Your target is the host of the event. He has descreetly placed bodyguards throughout the party and is likely to be the centre of attention for all of the guests. You may not harm any other person. Assume that you have been able to smuggle in whatever items you wish but that you have not had time prior to the event to rig a remote kill. How would you proceed to kill your target, and only your target, while still managing to keep your window of escape open?"