Great progress was made throughout the next week or so, Alex seemed to have been putting on his arrogance a lot more for a strong first impression, and had since limited his rudeness towards Jack and Scarlet to mere teasing in which they could laugh at (however awkwardly) between the three of them. It was because of that that they were able to stand him. Black was still mostly silent.
  As for the content of their time at the academy, the students were tested individually against the great Protector Grudge himself. It made for embarrassing moments for students when he beat them into submission, and was nearly overruled by some of the best and brightest. Jack felt the canvas quickly, no surprise to his team. They all used a vast hall in their block for training sessions, in which Croen thought best to pair him and Black up as the quiet young duelist had shown great balance and hand-to-hand technique briefly in the woods. Personally, Jack would've put himself up against Scarlet, who seemed talented, but not so much so he needed to actually try. Instead, poor Scarlet was left to fight Alex, who won every time without holding back. She could hold her own for some time, which showed she was extremely gifted with her creatively shaped blades. It was clear that her adaptability skills annoyed him as time went on. He didn't like to lose. Black was forcing himself to hold back on Jack, who he could knock down in the blink of an eye without a doubt. The boy of wasted potential was reduced to basic combat training, allowing Jack to swing and parry to get him up to barebones fighting ability. Things seemed good, until the day Alex snapped.

Jack knew there was something up from the get-go. The hateful ginger boy invited the silent boy to some private sparring, to which he had no excuse to refuse. They were to meet after classes ended in the training hall and they would find out who was the better fighter, Alex claimed. The boys did so, with Jack dragging Scarlet along just in case, despite Alex's protest. Suspicion grew. At first, they sparred normally and Alex gave him no chance to fight back. He pushed and pushed, but he never got what he wanted. He got angrier, and with anger came his strength, unloading more and more erratic attacks that he thought would force Black to respond. More and more, angrier and angrier. The greater the anger, the more reckless and unpredictable his attacks came. Not only that, Black was still in defensive and the lack of chances he took despite how many he could have been created irritated the brawler. To anyone else, it just looked like Alex wanted to win, and was doing a fair job. Eventually, Black made an opening and landed a hard roundhouse kick to Alex's cheek. Scarlet was cheering them on, oblivious to it all. Jack saw through it all. Alex must have an alternative motive. Suspicion grew. After being hit, Alex let loose, he lunged forward at impressive speed, glowing into sharp, aero dynamic armour that only made him more likely to inflict unnecessary damage. Previously, he'd only worn basic armour - low quality in design but high quality in utility, offensive and defensive. He was very dramatic in the way he would reveal his different suits. A smart and strategically genius idea, but really he just wanted to show off. With mere centimetres between Alex's knock-out punch and Black's face. The darker student saw no other option and braved the consequences of letting Alex see what he suspected. If he was conscious, he could get away quickly, whereas he couldn't control a thing unconscious. He pushed himself off to the side. For a few breathtaking seconds he took the form of an ebony crow that glided around the attack and reformed into a human on the opposite side of the hall.

Shapeshift Power, extremely rare, Jack recognised. Alex recognised. Even Scarlet lost herself. It also meant one of two things, one more likely than the other. Alex didn't give it time to fling Scarlet's hooked sword at him, she hadn't even noticed he'd taken it. He couldn't dodge it and was forced against the wall by his shoulder, luckily unscathed and only pinned by his coat. Alex calmly made his way toward his hostage, his eyes boiled. "Show me your neck." The atmosphere had just changed, a village idiot could tell it was no longer a friendly spar.
  "No." Black spat at him.
Scarlet and Jack were stopped in their tracks by Alex's visible snap. "Show me your neck, scum! Right now, before I rip off your head and check myself!" He reached out to Black's snood and took a hard grip on it.
"Tear it off, I dare you." Burning hatred was in both their eyes now. This was not a pair that reluctantly worked together by school laws.
Alex didn't hesitate to do so. As the fabric tore and hovered in front of them, They all saw what Black was hiding. "Criminal Aldrene scum!" Alex announced, glaring at the birthmark with a striking resemblance to a crow.

To any normal person, that was a pretty cool birthmark to bare. Something most would be proud of. In Stirland, it meant he was blood related to an infamous criminal from across the borders of Stirly. Aldrin was the country named by those who inhabited it, bearing a relationship long complicated with its neighbour. Originally, criminals were exiled over a humongous stone wall that marked the border, but over the time, the borders loosened for the children and grandchildren who hadn't committed any crimes. However, suspicion and tension settled as some Stirlene weren't sure what to think about the sons and daughters of known criminals. Offenders and reoffenders continued to be exiled until the borders shut again, beginning the wavey history between lands, opening and closing with years between. They'd shut again before Jack was born, and talks of them opening again were prevalent. The son of a well hated attempted killer, a rumoured third King of the 'land of the Abusers' illegally crossing the border was grounds for war. Perhaps he was an agent of war, a spy or assassin. The only thing they knew for sure was that he wasn't meant to be there.

Black's snood was precious to him - so he reacted instantly to it being torn. He gripped the blade that pinned him in place and tugged it upward, pulling it out the wall and bringing it down to scrape Alex's armour straight down his chest. There was no pause before his next attack, a lunch engulfed in violent flames. Without time to react to the punch, the ginger took the blazing fist before he was pounced onto by Black and overwhelmed him with a flurry of more scuffed attacks. There was no fancy chereogeaphy to be impressed by, Black simply let his knuckles bruise and bleed over the tough metal, muscle, and bone that kept Alex safe from concussion. the aggressed shook off from the aggressor, the two broke into larger scale combat, breaking modern laws of physics with their mystical abilities, even crashing through the wall and outside.
  Jack was just behind them, just desperate to get a word in. "Black, stop! Alex, don't say a word!" They paused, but weren't sure why.
  Alex protested in his place. "You saw his mark, he doesn't belong here!" He turned back to his opponent. "Go back into exile, you lowlife bastard!"
  Stripped off his exterior, Black continued their fight, though this time Alex could retaliate, causing a real fight to break out, attracting unwanted attention. Fire collided with Alex's steel, black feathers danced in the air around them as Black maneuvered between forms to dodge and counter. They were all over the courtyard, disrupting the perfectly cut grass and the decorative rock garden. Neither Jack nor Scarlet could keep up with them. There was a pausing moment where the boys posed opposing each other, a stalemate they each needed to muster a way around. Black shifted his gaze over the rest of his team and then the crowds at windows inside the academy and outside the gates. He placed a hand over his mark and backed off. Alex wasn't about to let him leave. "Don't think you're getting away from me, you dirty rat!"
"Scarlet, detain him." As ordered, the upper class girl got Alex down, simply by tackling him to the ground and pinning his tiny limbs with her own. Jack attempted to approach Black, but he'd disappeared into a puff of black feathers.

Except for Alex's struggling, there was silence throughout the academy courtyard as a stray Black Crow feather gently lay perfectly in Jack's hand. How could they be a team after this revelation?