The ork boy is almost 7 feet tall. His name is Howard and he's looking at Ben with an evil grin. Ben hears a few other boys around him - they must be 3 or 4 - but only stares at Howard, who's in command. They had cornered him at school during lunch time and now they're just messing around with the weakest of the class, making fun of him.

"Give me your schoolbag, I want to see what's inside." The voice is authoritative and confident. Ben despises this sort of authority gained purely through violence, and doesn't want to give in. Holding his bag tight, he doesn't say a word. Howard walks toward him and easily takes it by force, while others restrain Ben from trying to get it back. Howard empties the contents of the bag on the floor, spits on it and tramples it with fierce pleasure, cheking on Ben's reaction.

"Aren't you sad Benny?" says another boy named George. The bullies are obviously expecting their victim to weep. But Ben does not. With rage burning deep inside his soul, he turns to George and whispers "I - HATE - YOU". At the same time, George falls on the floor heavily while everyone turns back to look. A boy yells when he sees the blood that comes out of George's mouth, nose and ears. They're all looking at Ben in horror, walking away, terrified.

Ben is breathing deeply and slowly, his heart pounding. His rage is so intense that there is blood in his eyes. He looks down, still enraged, and understands that he might be responsible for whatever has just happened to George. He hears a commotion in the hallway and feels unconfortable. "What have I done?"

On the ground, Storm is still motionless, although with closer examination one can see that his lips form a slight smile of satisfaction. He must be dreaming.

The newly named Ego, goes over to one of the dead mages and struggles to pull the robes off of the dead body. It takes only a minute for the robe to pull free and the limp body to fall out.

Ego pulls the robes on, while Daniel moves closer to inspect the dead mage.

"Look at this." He says to the others, and points at the dead man's body.

The chest and back of the body is covered in blue tattoos, depicting Owls, wolves, ravens mixed with celtic knots and strange symbols that might be nordic ruins, but none of you are too sure about that.

"Interesting..." He mutters as he flips the body over to get a better look at some of the tattoos on the back. "What do we do now?" He asks.

"Guess it's sewer slogging time." Darien replied. "Perhaps it was better that Phoenix isn't here. I'd hate to hear her whine." he added, despite the fact that of his team, he was one most likely to be complaining. "So is this the Stones transformed? Or just another artifact that seems to have a similar effect on magically active people?"

Recalling Storm's condition, he turned to Stark. "Stark, think you could keep an eye on Sleeping Beauty until he recovers? Don't really want to leave him alone here, but we can't afford to let the trail get any colder. Give me a buzz when you're ready to catch up." he said, giving the dwarf his number before heading for the hole.