<div style="text-align: left;"><strong>  Xavier White, 'Paladin'</strong></div><br/><div class="floatleft">(http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee80/KaiStormwind/RP/PaladinX-009PowerSuit_zpsd92a0340.jpg)</div>Paladin watched High Voltage pull off another nifty electrical trick with his powers to come down safely from the roof without his help, and he couldn't help but feel impressed. These Class As...They really took the cake. As they took the elevator back up to the control room, Paladin was feeling rather satisfied with his performance with High Voltage. He had kept a timer running from the start of the simulation, and while they didn't beat HercuLina and Recoil's time, they ran them pretty close. When the doors opened, Xavier took a quick glance at Recoil; still as impassive as ever, betraying nothing of what she thought about their performance. No matter. He was confident he did well. There was scattered applause and cheering from some of the other contestants, the Green Gale notably one of them, to which Paladin acknowledged and responded to with a slightly stiff (he's in a heavy metal suit, what did you expect?) bow in return. The other contestants were now all engaged in discussion, having seen two of their number already attempt and succeed with the simulation.<br/><br/>That is, until Chad started to look for the Merry Prankster. Xavier had seen and chatted with her yesterday, but only briefly. Once he left for the pool, he didn't see her again for the rest of the day. Well, a quick scan of the people assembled in the control room revealed no sign of the Merry Prankster. And then came the bombshell. The production assistant running in, all flustered and panicking, was not a good sign. The Merry Prankster was dead, in her room. Xavier looked around at all the other contestants, as well as the judges, his own reaction masked by the helmet he wore. This was shocking news, and Xavier was taken aback by such a development. The two judges didn't seem to care much, and the other contestants were mostly in various states of shock and disbelief. Most disturbingly, Chad was still wearing that practiced fake smile of his on his face. Might have been a little more forced and strained this time though. And the way he immediately pushed it off to being an overdose accident was outrageously insulting to the Merry Prankster, even if he didn't know her well.<br/><br/>The soft, stammering and stuttering production assistant tried to get some words in, though Chad cut him off quickly. But the Paladin suit picked it all up. It warranted listening to again. "Artemisia, kill all external audio feed, then replay what Chad and his assistant said to each other." As a montage of the Merry Prankster's participation thus far in the tryouts played on screens, Paladin was quietly listening to the conversation between Chad and the production assistant again, now suspecting that there was clearly a little something more going on than the Hero Project was letting on. Xavier was not a conspiracy theorist, not by a long shot (though some of his fellow contestants might well be), but the TV show might just have gotten a little more dangerous than what they had been expecting.<br/><br/>As Chad asked for the next group to go and attempt the simulation, the Green Gale and Shockwave glided just off the ground and gracefully into the elevator, carried by one of the Green Gale's signature breezes. Paladin watched the doors close before silently walking over to the windows overlooking Simulation Room A to watch their run at the simulation. The metal suited hero wannabe pondered if any of the other heroes caught that exchange between the two; it was soft, but his suit managed to get it, though he doubted that too many of the others would have heard it. How many of them had cogs turning in their heads trying to make sense of things? And how many wanted to play detective?<br/><br/>Well, at least one of them wanted to do his own little investigation. Karn was asking to go look at the Merry Prankster's room after the simulation runs were over. Paladin had no doubt that he would be shot down, probably told to leave it to the authorities or something. Or that her body had already been moved. The other contestants technically had no business in interfering with things and if the Olympians weren't worried, maybe they shouldn't be. In any case, if they wanted to keep something from the contestants, a program as well funded as the Hero Project wouldn't do a half-assed job with it. Maybe he was thinking too much, and there was really nothing much to it. Regardless though, this was a stark reminder that they could very well die in non-simulations; the PIs were not immortal or omnipotent. Things were worrying, but Xavier could do nothing; not even precautionary measures, seeing as he knew nothing of what was going on. So best to focus on the competition for now. There was a time and place for thinking like a detective and figuring out what was the deal with the Merry Prankster's passing. Not now, with nothing but the barest of suspicions to go on with. Now he would watch the Green Gale and Shockwave try their hand at the simulation he just completed minutes earlier.<br/>