Hunter stared at the lock on the door to the armory, rifle leaned against the wall. He was tired...oh man was he tired. He had searched most of the Academy with the others for anyone who hadn't been evacuated, and he was exhausted. The entire time, Hunter had been silent, answering questions with incredibly short responses. He was too wrapped up in his own thoughts to engage in conversation. A collapsed building...everyone gone except for a handful of forgotten students who had been on patrol. This was the great defense for humanity? Faculty who, in the wake of a surprise attack, ditched their headquarters and fled, leaving the defense to a handful of kids that had been punished for brawling? Students who, instead of rallying together to push back, upped and forgot all their training? He pulled out his cellphone to check the time. He had already called his family to make sure they were alright. The city was chaotic, but they were alright. More worried about him. He hadn't mentioned that the academy was, essentially, a dead ruin at the moment. Simply saying that he was alright and would stay in touch. His eyes flicked back to the lock. He could summon Voracia and have her break the door down. He could ask one of the others to do it. He could try to pick the lock.

With a heavy sigh he leaned back against it, sliding down to the floor and running his hands over his eyes. Too much lack of oversight, too much lack of discipline. If this is what the Academy could muster during an emergency, he had made a mistake joining them. The remaining students were a motley crew at best, but to their credit, they hadn't abandoned each other during the attack. They had stood up when everyone else ran. If it hadn't been for them, he doubted anyone would have survived the attack. Several had passed out. They weren't battle hardened, none of them were. It would be too much to assume the attack wouldn't have effected them to a significant degree. The sniper found himself flinching at sounds behind him, expecting teeth to clamp down on the back of his neck at any moment. This place didn't feel safe to him anymore. And how did he handle it? Wandering off alone and staying quiet, moping in the shadows about lack of discipline and team work. He stood up, turning to face the door. The armory had ammunition, something he needed badly. He was exhausted, too tired to summon Voracia again. But he wasn't about to go to sleep with an empty pistol. No windows, of course. Just the one door. Heavy. Reinforced. Locked up tight. Options. The sniper paced a ways down the hall, searching the other side for...there. A huge broken gap in the wall. Large enough for the lanky boy to squeeze through.

It only took a few minutes to gather the ammo for his rifle and pistol. He then began filling the backpack with anything he could find that would have been useful. More ammo mostly, a few extra pistols. He stopped as he found a flak jacket in good condition. The school had one of these? Seriously, they pitched a fit about budget cuts when Hunter had asked for extra pillows in his dorm, and they had flak jackets? He opted against taking it, even if only to spite whichever administrator decided that an obsolete piece of clothing was more important than getting toilet paper that didn't come as 2 inch squares made out of stripped cardboard for the student bathrooms. Slipping back out of the armory, the boy headed back to the common rooms linking both boy and girl dorms together, laden down with enough ammo to drop an empire, and a few extra weapons to boot.

That attack would be the last where he ever ran out of ammo.

Jace couldn’t help but feel a bit tired at the end of the day. I mean, demons invading and being forced to fight through the school in an attempt to survive can have quite an impact on a person. But regardless of how tired he was, he still had something keeping him going. He was, with a group of other students, searching the grounds for any people that may have gotten left behind. The energy was low, no one really saying much as they searched, but they trudged on. Jace had his familiars searching too, Aiah taking the bird’s eye view and Dib and Onai off on their own searching. As the sun started to set, they decided it was time to call it quits. Jace whistled loudly and his familiars flocked to him. With some words of praise and some snacks from his pocket, he released them from their summon. The weight off his shoulders was immense, but not quite gone yet. He looked down to see the shield on his arm, the shield that had saved his life more than once during the day. He needed to store it in his room before he did anything else.

“I’m going to head back to the dorms” He called to the group, as he made his way towards the now unlocked building. He quickly made his way through the halls and to his room, closing the door behind him as he entered. With a sigh he threw his shield on his bed. He peeled off his left glove to reveal a swollen hand with blue veins surging close to the skin.

“Every time…” He muttered as he rubbed his hand, trying to reveal the pain caused by his shield. Its nasty habit of draining energy meant it was strong, but the side effects were strong too. With a stunted grunt he wrapped his hand in a bandage he got from his bedside table. He wrapped it up tightly and tied it off before letting out a disgruntled sigh and throwing his glove on the bed. He took off his other glove and kicked off his shoes. He was contemplating going to sleep, but after a day like that, he decided sleep might not even be possible. He figured that since he couldn’t sleep, he might as well find somewhere to relax, so he made his way to the common room and sat down on one of the couches. He let out a deep sigh as he leaned back and closed his eyes. All of a sudden there was a light next to his head, and Jace almost reacted rashly. Luckily for him, it was just his hawk. She had a bad habit of summoning herself, something Jace, his father, and even the leaders of his village couldn’t figure out. She just seemed to really like him. She hopped her way down onto his chest and laid down, falling asleep on his chest. He smiled and scratched her under the chin, having finally relaxed after the day. It was times like this that he was happy to have her.

“I swear you guys are like kids” He said to his hawk. He had decided after a hard day of fighting, maybe they should spend some time together. He summoned his wolves and called them up onto the couch with him. They both lay down on the edge of the couch, swirled up in each other looking like mixed paint. He smiled and lay back on the lounge, once again relaxing himself.

Today had been an interesting day, at least he could wind down with his friends.

Stephen was having a very bad day. His head hurt, his feet hurt and his back hurt, the strangest of his hurtings. It felt like he'd been punched by some mecha that mistook him for a Kaiju. He rubbed his back as he walked after everyone else, rubbing his head sending specks of dried up blood flying out of it. He hated it when he fainted after a big event, it all got turned into some sort of fighting montage in his memories. All he could remember was Rai wrecking shit, his partner flipping and shooting and some guy named Hunter shouting at him. Then that was probably when he blacked out, oh and there was some sort of demon nuke.

Now he just wandered around the school grounds along with the rest of the 'rejects' left at the high school. It was pretty obvious they'd been abandoned, or everyone was invisible. That was highly unlikely though. Rai sat on his shoulder,brushing her hair back to it's usual perfect form. That was quite an excitement they had just expereinced, she was just hoping Steve wasn't gonna be sick again. The last time they had gotten into some weird ass situation like that, they'd escaped and no charges were pressed upon them, and this time they had done no wrong!

She giggled as they searched and began to poke Steve's face. "Steeeeeeeve!" She sang mockingly with a mischevious grin. " Whya re we hanging with this group of losers?"" She pointed around to the rest of the search party, making him chuckle. "Rai, if you'll stop offending everyone, do you want to go and get some machine guns or something from the armory. Just promise not to blow up any humans." She tilted her head, obviously deep in her philisophical thoughts. "Alright! You convinced me!" Stephen grinned victoriously and began walking off.

He made it to the armory, now his ankle was hurting like mad. Damn, why was his body like a piece of bloody china? He sighed and then looked up to see a familliar face also at the armory. "hey look it's your bestie" Rai whispered softly into Steve's ear making him glare at her. "Ummmmm hi there...Hunter rright? Anything good left? Anything there at all?"

So much was going on...Eika couldn't follow it with so much noise going on. With an evident frown, she lowered her head as everyone went on about their ways and motioned for Immortalis to begin trudging into the boy's dormitory in order to find a quiet spot for her to rest. Once the suit of armor had crashed shoved his way in, Ego would flood in behind him whilst Id went to go and tend to the wounded partner of the blind girl as she was sat down on a couch in order to rest. With a small notion given to her armored knight, she placed herself into a ball once she was settled in, and with an unfortunately necessary implosion of a summoning rune beneath his feet combined with the glowing of the mark around her neck, Immortalis took to a kneeling position before sinking down into it to be sent off to whatever he was able to call a resting place. Ego promptly plopped down next to her, both legs kicking up on a table in front of her and her arms spreading over the couch back to get comfy.

"AHH!~ That was fun! So, you humans seem hella beat! ...Is this one of those mystical ritual things where everyone gets all lovey dovey, the lights turn off, and we set the table on fire to start some campfire stories?! I can cover the fire!~"

In mid-attempt to pester Hunter about the claw mark he'd received from the invasion, Id turned around to pick up a small desk decoration and hurl at her sister's head -- the projectile landing true and rewarding her unladylike efforts with a grunt of displeasure atop the volatile Ego falling to her side.
"Goddamn it, Id!"
"Behave yourself. You're acting like a mongrel. Can't you see that Eika is suffering from a headache? You'd be better off trying to find one of those 'little white pills' as you reference them so she can take one. Anyways..."

Ah, now her head turned to the more-important task at hand.
"Hunter, may I see your shoulder? I've something that'll be able to fix it up quickly, so you needn't worry over it in the next situation."
And with that, she slid her hand across her mark across a single dark feather -- quickly replaced by another one grown, and taking on a shining bright white color in order to show it to the human she so needed to bother. It illuminated a type of warmth that was...comforting. Soothing to the extent of presence alone. From the looks of things? She planned to use it on him.

Because feathers.

Why the fuck not.

Guilt; that was probably the best explanation of the feelings running through her right in that very moment. Cara knew that she should have been there - up in the frey with the rest of her small band of companions that now only had a ruin to defend.

While they looked shattered - covered in bruises, cuts and looking generally run down; Cara was completely fine with some weary legs being the only extent of her injuries, if that even was an injury. Dealing with it was hard enough and whenever they all met up, she elected to keep to the edge of the group and maintain a strict silence lest she be spotted and brought up for her lack of participation. Hell, even Wheels got some action. Sending an angry kick at a nearby clump of rubble seemed to be a fairly good way of removing any anger but finalised with her hopping about and holding one foot while biting her lip.

Still though, she quickly caught on that she'd have to pull her weight around if she didn't want to be pointed out for maintaining a craven-like attitude. Silently, she elected herself to go and check out the caretaker's outbuilding, which by far was one of the longest walks. Somehow, she put up with the angry kicks of her leg muscles as she trudged out and across sports-field after sports-field until she finally reached her destination.

Now, although most students would probably dismiss the importance of the caretaker's outbuilding; Cara was a realist and she quickly figured that the destruction of their school not only limited their access to it but it shut down most of the basic functions of the school. Electricity was probably out, plumbing possibly could have kept intact and finally, their radiators had a very high chance of being useless.

So, they would need an alternate heat source and if they were expected to last for a few days then they were going to need more clothing that could keep them warm. Not only that but injuries were on the rise and they needed a way to bandage them without eviscerating their current clothing. Grabbing two sports bags, she began to mash clothing inside them before she checked for anything else useful.

She didn't find a lot really - there was some wire cutters but she failed to see their usefulness so she resigned to what she had.

On the way back to the dorms, she tried to see if the canteen had survived much. Unfortunately, the whole thing had collapsed - and they'd need some heavy-duty lifting if they wanted access to the storeroom.

When she got back, she was slightly surprised to find that the girls had just hopped on into the guys' dorms. Cara really had no idea why this was the case before she figured that there was strength in numbers. Sliding the sports bags off her shoulders, she looked at the couch longingly before her stomach growled and won their little debate. Trudging forward, she moved into the kitchen and looked around. "Any food?"

Hunter had instinctively reached for his pistol when Steve's voice caught him off guard. He was jumpy...he took a breath, quickly moving the hand to make a wave at the boy.

"Hey Jelly. Nothing much, a few pistols, mostly ammo. You know they don't keep anything heavy around."

It was true. In fact, he was pretty sure his barrett was the heaviest non-magical firearm on the school grounds, and the academy didn't even provide it to him, but rather his family had. Military relatives had some nice perks. The sniper considered handing Steve a pistol as a sidearm, then thought about it for a moment. The boy was timid, afraid of blood, and had an imp that was just as likely to suggest getting ice cream as she was mass genocide. This boy would never carry a gun, of that Hunter was sure. He shifted the ammo box.

"Steve, do me a favor: Under no circumstances are you to take a gun without some training."

The boy pointed at Rai.

"No matter what she says. Okay? Also, feeling better now?"

Hunter headed back to the commons with the boy, dumping his ammo boxes into a corner with a slight frown. The strap had reopened the shoulder bite. Jace was sprawled over a couch, his familiars all around him. Cara passed by, looking distracted as she dumped two bags onto the ground and headed to the kitchen. Hunter's eyes flicked to Eika, with Ego and Id around her as the juggernaut knight thing sank into the ground. His thoughts turned to Voracia. He was still too weak to summon her...she would pout. She would be angry that he sent her away. And if she saw that he HAD been injured...well...

"-so you needn't worry over it in the next situation."

Hunter blinked, finally realizing Id was talking to him about his shoulder. She was holding a feather up that was giving off a warmth. Hunter nodded, sitting down on one of the chairs and removing his shirt to give better access to the wound. It had been right on the back of his shoulder, and as he turned his back to Id so she could treat him, he became keenly aware of just how frikkin cold it was in the room. Large bruises covered his back, many hidden by a large ornate rune circle tattoo that dominated most of his back. But he was too tired to care at this point, pulling his backpack up with his knees and reaching in to pull out an energy bar.

"...anyone need some food? I've got some more in here...normally I save it for Voracia, but in this situation, I don't think she'll mind."

After about thirty minutes of filing his claws in the boys' dorm, in which he had to use his nails to pick the lock to get into, he only jumped three-feet into the air when the window from across the hall had been smashed in. The hail of glass shards was then followed by some dude who had his bangs clipped against his crown, revealing a wide expanse of his forehead that glowed under the fluorescent light.

Blake watched in complete silence as hairclip-boy wandered around for a bit, and then finally slipped into one of the rooms. He sat there, in the dark, propped up against the wall. One would think he was pondering life's greatest mysteries; but no, he was instead, completely dumbfounded when forehead-boy had burst in through the windows, proving that Blake's hard efforts in picking the lock with one of his claws had proven to be redundant. Not only had the majority of the academy crumbled to bits, but apparently he was losing his common sense as well.

Blake facepalmed in defeat when the thought of losing a couple of brain cells as a result of overworking himself crossed his mind. He turned his attention back to the room the hairclip-boy entered, just in time to catch a glimpse of another young student with really cool hair that seemed to glow in the dark as she entered the same room the other guy was in. He dusted his mid-length coat off and slowly made his way to the door opening of the room. Any company at this point would have been appreciated- after all, his energy had been drained and his shoulder ached after carrying Jelly around.

He did however, want to be safe. So he stood behind the crook of the door and waited until the two were done conversing, nodding his head lightly at the silver-haired girl's mention of gathering at the dorms, until finally leaving to "rest" in the other room. Blake felt it weird to be eavesdropping on another pair of students, but one could never be too sure, right? Maybe they were demons in disguise.

He felt much like an assassin as he slipped out from behind the door and into the brightly-lit room, his creeping presence still gone unnoticed by the hairclip boy who seemed to be handling something at the counter. Skillfully letting his buttcheeks relax, he gunned it at full-speed until he was behind the other boy, positioning a clawed hand around his neck and one behind his back in case he tried to resist.

"Hey, forehead," Blake spoke in a hushed voice so as to not alert the other "student". "-put down the fucking pizza and tell me sincerely you're not one of those putrid bastards from hell."

Maxamillion "Hulk" Lovecannon

After getting some scratches healed up, either through partner or airy, Maxamillion took to searching the grounds. He stuck close to their assigned area, heading into classes and whatnot to look for stragglers, but nothing really came of it, just messes and lofty areas of alien quietness. Schools seemed to have this odd sense of dread when they weren't full of life...Getting annoyed with the fruitless endeavor he gave up after what he felt was an excusable time, and headed down to the boy's dorm. Not really caring if it was locked or not.

Arriving to see a body fly through a window, Maxamillion sighed deep in his throat. At least he hadn't been paired up with that guy, anyone who said so, even by mixing up name, must be an idiot. Shrugging off his authors previous mistakes Max slowly glided into the dorm, a small body had entered before him, obviously not one who took refuge there, she had too much...let's call it grace.

Walking past the open door Max gave a sideways glance to see the blue haired kid standing alone in the kitchen, he eyes the food with mild interest but decided to ignore it, not stopping his forward motion at all. Coming to his lonely quarters Maxamillion retrieved his friend, the comically long necklace used for exorcising. Without it he didn't really do much in that regard, more of just a kid hyped up enough to punch hard.

Wrapping the beads around his arm, as it would not easily fit in his pocket, he set out once more. Still not offering words to the others who had gathered now in the rooms. A little group of people, he took not of each of them. He would probably seeing them all often...

"...This is going to be a long week..." He murmured as his footsteps became scratchy over pavement and rubble.

Sel'ar M. Eindz

After groggily stirring, Sel'ar looked around the area, things still coming to a blur she didn't register where she was. All that her mind retained was, air. She had flown, or fallen, likely fallen. A somewhat panicked looked down, and she found the earth. Under her, just as close as she had hoped it would be, she was safely on her wheels. Wheels? When did she get back there? She didn't remember...perhap-

Jerking her head up, her eyes found her partner. The small figure was holding his/her shirt down to revel their bare shoulder. Asking if it showed any sign of a bruise. "Uhm..." She wasn't sure how to really say it. A decently sized spot of dark was making a home out of his joint. Would he be worried if she exaggerated? He didn't seem like the type...

"Yes..." That would be enough. As long as they got the message and didn't hate her for it, Sel'ar would be content. "I could...look at it for you?" She raised her spindly fingers up a bit, as if to hold something delicate. She hadn't been useful before, but she could be now.

She pushed herself over, doing her best to not tip too much on the somewhat cluttered ground, and to ignore the new squeak of her tires. "I'm...a healer." She explained simply, she doubted this person wanted her to delve too deep into her background.

"And uhm..." She avoided eye contact now. "It's Sel'ar..." She mumbled at the end, not wanting to correct her partner, in fear of what she might get in return.

She simply raised her hands once more, repeating the offer to start her work. She wondered how many others were injured. She would be glad to help, yet sad that she needed to.

Ixion Farbrigth

Ase didn't seem to want pizza, but then again, she also said she was in the mood for anything. So, Ixion pulled out the box from the fridge, opening it over a table in the dorm kitchen to reveal a solid four slices. Cheese pizza- a classic that was sure to please anyone. A bit on the bland end, but pizza nonetheless. Two for him and one for Ase, he decided after grabbing a plate and stacking three slices on it, wondering if he should microwave the last slice as well, and how large the tiny girl's appetite was. He decided against it, instead deciding to shove the plate into a microwave to heat.

Ixion's partner was still in the background talking about how it was unnecessary to open the girls' dorm, and that she was planning on resting. "Don't..." she started, Ixion turning to her in curiousity, "Break anything."
To which Ixion responded to with a smile hinted of weariness, as well as a chipper, "No promises!"

As Ase made her way to the dorm's common room, Ixion took to shutting the pizza box with the lone slice, leaving it on the table and not bothering to return it to the fridge. Hey, what was the point? The chances of someone seeing it was much higher if it was left out, as opposed to being in the fridge amongst other luxurious choices. The microwave beeped for his attention, and just as he grabbed the plate to head for his white haired partner, someone stopped him by the counter.

"Hey forehead," whispered someone from behind, a clawed hand pressed close to his neck. From the slight pressure of fabric against his back, Ixion assumed there was probably a clawed had there, too. But more importantly! Forehead? What a rude nickname! "Put down the fucking pizza and tell me sincerely you're not one of those putrid bastards from hell."

Turning his head slowly so as not to be scratched, the older blue haired male positioned his head so that his profile was visible to whoever was holding him hostage. From what Ixion could see, it was another kid left behind that was out for patrol, and as his memory recollected past memories involving the boy's face and oddly familiar hair, he deduced that the boy was another that'd been caught in the tussle a week back. The one with the retractable claws- well, that part was obvious given they were right at his throat.

The older of the two threw on the darkest face he could muster, his eyes glaring intensely towards Claw Boy, a low growl managing to snake out of his sneering lips. "What the fuck's it to you?" he asked in a tone lower than his actual voice, pausing before his face reverted to it's idiot image. Ixion's frown was replaced with a smile, his eyes no longer glaring and actually quite cheerful looking, glittering with a twinkle of mischievousness. "Kidding, kidding," he assured with a laugh- only idiots could be in a situation like this, act stupid, and still laugh about it- "My name's Ixion! I live here, but the doors were locked! I am not a demon, I think, hehe. But don't you think you were a bit rude?"

"See," he continued, resting the plate of pizza down on the counter, a late response to the blonde's earlier demand, "My partner is halfa, and you make it sound like being a demon's a bad thing. And another thing, it's very rude to attack your elders, you know. Especially an unarmed one. Rude and unfair." Ixion smiled cheerfully again, hints of weariness having disappeared in his dumb face as he added, "Now, if you please, can you let me go? I have a partner to pamper!"

---

Gabriel "Angel" Avlon

"Could you really?" Angel asked, brightening at the idea of being healed. He was never one for pain- he tolerated it, sure, but in choosing between pain killers and sweating fevers out, Gabriel was the type to choose the former over the latter. "That'd be awesome, thanks!" It seemed as though, out of battle, he was much more appreciative of his partner's presence. And he was, truthfully. After all, she was now less dead weight and more helpful little first aid kit on wheels.

Realizing the trouble she was having over the uneven grounds, Angel let go of his shirt and moved along behind her, giving a warning, "Watch your hands," before he started to push as well. As he continued over to more even ground, he wondered why the chair was much heavier- he had pushed Sel'Ar on it while she was unconcious as well, but it seemed as though being awake also added weight onto a person. Stopping just by the dorm, said partner started to mumble.

"Whassat?" asked Angel, leaning a head over, to hear the last fair remains of her name properly pronounced. "Dammit, speak up, woman! Sell-Ar? Selar?" The name felt unfamiliar on his tongue, but he continued different variations of it nonetheless. As he repeated her name he made his way once more in front of her, pulling his shirt down- he'd rather stretch his shirt than get pangs of pain taking it off- and bending towards, "Sel'Ar."

"Okay, I think I got it," he said, continuing with, "Sel'Ar. You can start healing now. And you better be better at healing than you are with everything else I swear to God." His weariness was evident in the lack of fucks given at using the Lord's name in vain.

Darius, meanwhile, had squirreled himself away somewhere away from the dorms. Being ever the unsociable type, he'd opted to go out on his own to check up on the emergency evacuation portals to see if any of them were still running. Lo and behold, not a single one was still working. It was almost as if the universe itself were conspiring to make contact with the rest of civilization impossible...

Fortunately, the universe hadn't taken into account Darius' cell phone. It didn't take more than ten minutes for him to reach one of the teachers, and from there to be connected to an administrator. He'd assured them that everything was fine here, there were no serious injuries and they had healers aplenty for the minor ones, but that there were no working portals and it was too late now to start the trek through the woods and into the city proper. That was fine, came the reply, they could all just spend the night and somebody would be around to fetch them tomorrow. That was still terribly irresponsible, was what Darius said, and here he was told that there were some issues tying up the emergency services and the less they needed to worry about right this moment the better. Well that just sounds ominous Darius told them, and this time he was told that was certainly not anything ominous at all and to not worry about it and just think of this as a big sleepover. Then there was a sound like somebody's head exploding, which is probably a very unique sound though not one that Darius would recognize, and the administrator said goodbye and hung up.

And that brings us to the now. Darius had found himself a nice quiet hallway with one of the few properly working electrical outlets, which he gratefully plugged his nearly-dead phone into. Huddled against the wall, eyes glued to his phone which was now playing what would probably be his highest scoring bejeweled game ever, and generally being the antisocial prat that he was, Darius found himself all too aware of a pair of footsteps shattering his solitude. Big steps, big person, and just barely audible, the faint jingling of beads.

He didn't particularly feel like being all social right now, and so focused even more on his little screen. Of course Darius had no idea who was making those footsteps, but we the Readers know that it could be none other than Maxamillion "Hulk" Lovecannon; and he therefore had no reason to worry about awkward small talk, because if anyone currently in that ruined building was less likely to engage an antisocial boy playing with his phone than Darius, it was probably Max.

Blake stood there behind the boy and sighed in relief when he explained himself. He thanked his lucky stars, but he couldn't help but feel like an ass for holding sharp things against a senior's throat.

The blonde boy stepped back carefully so as to leave the older one unscathed.

"Yeah, er... sorry about that." Blake apologized as he scratched the back of his head anxiously. "I-it's been a long day and... I guess it was wrong for me to overreact like that. I don't really have any other excuses besides that." he twiddled his thumbs and looked up at the dark-haired boy. "I'm sorry I called you forehead. I mean you have a pretty cool forehead. I mean-- never mind." Blake prayed that he wouldn't judge him badly after all of that. Holy shit, talk about bad first impressions.

He eyed the remaining slice of pizza while rubbing his roaring tummy. He was definitely feeling ravenous after everything so he figured, why not help himself to one? Sure, half the school was in ruins but at least a bunch of them were still alive and breathing. The blonde lifted the cold slice to his mouth, not minding the crunch or the staleness- so long as it filled him up, which it did.

The exorcist walked into the room where the supposed half-demon laid on the couch. He felt like he was intruding, but she did mention earlier it would be best if they all gathered up anyway. Not feeling the need to disturb her, he whispered to her as she slept:

"Sorry for bringing up the 'demons are bad' stereotype earlier." Short and simple, she probably didn't hear him- but it was the thought that counted.

"Hey, what's your name? I'm Blake. Hope you had the heart to forgive me for earlier." he whispered to the boy with the hairclip. He took a seat behind the couch and awaited whatever would happen next, all the while resting his body and regaining his energy.

Voices came and went, people were gathering in the commons room and Ase was somewhat annoyed by it. Though, she was the on at fault for not going up to sleep in one of the many rooms, so complaining wouldn't really be all that noble of her. Nonetheless, she turned her head and slowly opened her eyes, staring at the gathering group with blistering red eyes. Most of their names escaped her, simple words that were not needed in her busy brain, but the ever present knowledge of them having to work together and live together now was making her feel a bit bad for forgetting them. Oh well, think later, rest now. Ase turned her head once more, staring at the cushion of the couch as she attempted to build some strength.

For a moment, darkness enveloped her, and all the voices faded into white noise. Her body felt warm and heavy, as it was already attempting to heal itself already, and she simply sighed and relaxed. Her weary shoulders and aching legs began to heal, slowly, before finally the few cuts and bruises on her body began to vanish as well. After a while of silent blackness, Ase felt her mind whirl boredly, thoughts forming among the inky air as colorful swirls and dots. She thought of the group, and her partner, and the disappearing students and teachers. The hoard of demons, the collapsing school, anything.

Anything she could think of appeared in her head, gleaming brightly before being psuhed away by another thought. That was when the question started; HOW did that hoard of demons spawn? Who was the cause? There were probably plenty of people (well, demons) out to get the school, but Ase didn't have a clue. She felt... Worthless, in that aspect. If she wasn't figuring out the mystery, then she was pointless. Just a weakling with a knack for healing magic. Her colorful thoughts eventually faded, and the silence returned. The darkness remained, evidence that she was probably drifting off to sleep, but something faint kept her semi-awake. A new voice, talking directly to her. The smell of dog filled her senses, and Ase eventually opened her eyes again and turned over, eyes narrowed into slits. Another person stood over her, the dog-smelling one obviously.

'Stereotyping, huh?'

Ase clenched her fist tightly, restraining the need to lash her tail, and sneered at the boy before turning back over. He left after a moment, asking for someone's name, and now too restless to sleep she groaned, shoving her face deep into the cushion below her. It was going to be a long, long night.

Jace, without having realized it, had fallen asleep on the lounge. Thoughts of the day swirled around in his head, images of fighting, magic, lots and lots of blood and most of all, demons. Images of imps and blobs made their way around and around, ducking in and out of his sight. He tossed and turned a little before the image of a demon threw itself right at him. In a moment of panic he flayed wildly, falling off the lounge to a rather loud thud and startling his wolves. They didn’t get down from the lounge, but they did glance down at him before going back to their rest. His hawk however was not as forgiving. As he realized he was lying face down on the ground, Aiah lightly nipped his nose, disgruntled from being awoken. Jace let out a sigh as he sat up and rubbed his head, glancing around the room. It seems in the time that he had gone to sleep, considerably more people had arrived. He could name a few of them, but he wasn’t the most social person so most of them were simply familiar faces. He stood up and dusted himself off before sitting down calmly on the lounge. He kept a straight face, but on the inside, his brain was literally kicking itself for falling asleep like that.

‘Why did there have to be so many people?’ he thought as he sunk into the lounge. It was at that moment that his stomach let out a loud grumbling sound. His embarrassment was immediately replaced with the realization that he hadn’t eaten anything except that god awful since that morning. Being a survivalist he wasn’t picky with his food, so he reached into his bag at his waist and pulled out a small bread roll biting into it with vigor. He was used to plain meals, when he used to live in the mountains he would camp out for a few days at a time, so he always had a small surplus of food. He wasn’t picky with food, but he did like the dinners at the school. He swallowed the mouthful before breaking a little bit off and giving it to the little hawk that had hopped its way back up onto his chest. After glancing around at the room for a while, not having any idea what was going on after sleeping through all the conversation, he decided he would add his two cents.

“So today was a crazy day, huh?” He said with a smile to no one in particular. He took another bite of his bread as he rested his bandaged hand on the pair of wolves, admiring how the heat from their fur seemed to make the pain fade.

The feather would be placed upon Hunter's shoulder and sink right through the skin, torn flesh molding together by the second and bruises fading sooner than that as Id crossed her arms and gave something of a smile....which followed her slipping her hands over her mask and tugging up half of it. Crouching down for a moment, a single, cracked, violet optic would stare down the human male with the repercussion being Eika shooting up from her place across the room with a terrible squeak.
"I-ID!"
A well-earned laugh would be given as the blonde would slip the mask back down and stand up straight. Her attention would then turn back the healing shoulder in order to judge its progression for a moment -- and once dubbing it to be fixing itself up nicely -- would be placed as a secondary concern as she moved on to her list of important things.
"Alright. Are you hungry? I've few quarrels about playing the role of the motherly figure and grabbing you something to eat or drink along with whatever Eika is feeling up to -- once she calms down, that is."

Those words would follow with Ego yanking up the girl who wanted to do no more than rest her head for a moment in order to drag her across the room and plop her down right to where her partner was sitting. It even looked like she had a smart explanation for doing so! What was going on in this maddening scenario?!
"Hunter! You need to take care of her and stuff! Y'know. Stop getting hurt and junk, or she's gonna worry-"
"You were hurt?..."
...Whoops. WELP. CAT OUT OF THE BAG NOW. Eika's hands shot out to feel for his shirt- ...well, only to find skin. Ahem. Queue her stopping for a moment to bring her hands back and attempt to recall the flash of what Id had subjected a fraction of her given sight to...Shoulder, shoulder...Her digits pressed against his chest for a moment before her arms worked their way around his midsection to give him a hug. Complete exaggeration of what was already being mended up? Possibly, but that wasn't about to stop her from pouting and expressing her genuine concern.

"I'm sorry...I didn't want you getting hurt..."
Ego in the meanwhile? Just kinda...Rubbed the back of her head, snickered a bit, and hopped on the now-unoccupied couch that Eika had previously been on to laze upon like a cat. Kay. She might have goofed a bit but that didn't mean she had to be sad about it! She was fairly happy with her handiwork, to be honest!~

Food. That was the only thing going through her head right in that very moment. So, whenever she walked in, she consciously chose to ignore Claws pressing his paws to Blue-hair's back. Cara was much too hungry to settle civil disputes amongst the so called demon-hunters. Apparently Claws didn't know about the large amount of demons at the ex-school. Seriously, there was quite a few of them and according to the teachers, most of them were healers.

If she wasn't starved, she would have punched the guy in the face for: 1. Being a douche to his fellow students and 2. Offending half of her DNA. Lucky for him, her DNA wasn't in the mood for getting into a fight so she chose instead to walk straight past their little fight and head directly for the fridge.

Her head was practically buried in the fridge and when she pulled it back up to stare at them, there was a cold sausage-roll in her mouth. Lifting her hand up to pull it away, she ate for a while, bathing in their awkwardness before she rolled her eyes. Finally, Claws left with a slice of pizza but Cara couldn't help but take his words with a pinch of salt. Was he the only one who held such opinions and more importantly, were her and the other few half-demons safe around there?

Sighing, she nibbled on the sausage-roll that was snugly fitted into her two hands. "That guy's a douche." She murmured without much indignation - they were all tired but that doesn't mean you go and threaten someone on your own side. Turning, she watched Blue-hair for a few seconds as her eyes narrowed slightly. She may not have liked Claws much but it was creepy how quickly Blue could change his demeanour.

"Also, is it too hard to go bust the door in or something? We can put doors back on but we can't put windows in and now the cold is going to get in." Despite him being a good few inches taller than her and being an archer - someone she should have trusted, she glared at him and moved forward a little. "No more breaking windows. Got it?"

Stephen wasn't quite sure what was wrong with this Hunter boy, he seemed fine earlier, why was he so jumpy now. Him jumping, made Steve jump and Rai run off menaciningly, looking for some good firepower to lend Steve. As she searched, Stephen gave the fellow tamer a look of confusion. Why was he so god damn nervous all of a sudden? In the heat of battle he was like some high ranking commander.

Then he made a comment about him and guns. Why not? He had handled a shotgun before, and he made quick work out of that dummy Rai had made out of Bacon. He wasn't the best...but he wouldn't be so dangerous. Why was everyone quick to assume he'd either be useless or dangerous when given a weapon of possible mass destruction. It wasn't like Rai controlled him.

"Why not? It's not like Steve's some sort of maniac like you..." She said with an agaitated look shot at the sniper. She knew he wasn't a friend of demons, he just summoned them.

Steve shot her a glare and trotted after Hunter, hoping he wouldn't lose someone to talk to that wasn't a devious imp girl. The boy seemed alright, definetly not as rash as his partner. "Oh yeah, I'm fine..." He said to Hunter, rubbing his hurting head. Rai then appeared with a poof on his shoulder again giggling her head off. "Ummmm what the..." HE said looking at Eika suspiciously. "Why did you...why did you put a feather there....?"

Ixion Farbrigth

"It's okay, it's okay," assured Ixion as the little doggy sheepishly apologized. Reaching a hand to his forehead upon the following comment, the blue haired boy let loose a light laugh, adding a simple, "Thanks."

As the blonde shuffled off for a pizza and made his way out of the kitchen, Ixion resumed with picking up the plate and followed after. Before passing the threshold, however, his attention was caught by a girl a bit shorter, nibbling on meat. There was an air about her as she grumbled to herself that reminded the senior a bit of his own partner, and before he knew it-

"That guy's a douche."

-he was patting her on the head. "Nah," he countered, lips forming a gentle smile, "He's just misguided." The answer, he realized, seemed to have slipped out of his mouth as easily as the head petting had slipped into his actions, and for a moment Idion debated on whether or not he was supposed to have answered her or if she had been talking to herself. While he pondered on the subject, she continued to scold him at a length, the same scolding he would have no doubt received from Ase had the white haired halfa been a little less tired.

"I'm sorry, sorry," apologized Ixion with a small, lighthearted laugh, unable to stop himself from reaching his hand once more to give the girl another pat, "I promise I'll try not to break any more windows." Even the final command was similar, and the thought of it made a large grin emerge on his face, waving a small wave as he started heading to the lounge.

Upon arrival at the common room, it seemed as though a majority of the group had arrived. Several seemed to have collapsed into their own respectable couches, Ixion eyeing some couple action over one end- the shirtless boy and the girl wrapped around him hopefully were going to excuse themselves prior to continuin their sexual endeavors. Reaching for a pizza on his plate and shoving it in his mouth, he made his way towards Ase, eyebrows raising in curiousity to find the earlier blonde was nearby as well.

Having easily scarfed down his first slice, Ixion made his way slowly and quietly so as not to disturb his sleeping partner, past the boy who introduced himself as Blake. "I'm Ixion," he whispered with a small smile, "and nah man, it's totally cool. We're cool."
As he said so, he took to seating himself on one of the arms of the couch, the side closer to Ase's head, resting the plate of pizza on a nearby table. Said plate was now left with a single slice, Ixion already halfway through his second one. "Were you apologizing?" asked the older teen, his voice low but not whispered, licking at stray crumbs on his lips.

He found himself reaching to pat Ase on her head, nibbling on pizza as he did so. Ixion tried to soothe the pain with his gentle petting, finishing his slice as he continued to do so, hoping that his touch somehow comforted her. Partially because he wanted her to fall asleep and get rested, partially because he realized too late that two pizzas weren't enough and maybe if she fell asleep he could eat her's. Wiping crumbs off his other hand and onto his pants, Ixion licked at his lips before glancing up towards Blake. He grinned, softly asking, "Do you wanna be petted, too?"

He meant it jokingly, of course, his blue eyes twinkling with laughter as-
Ixion's hand stopped petting and his smile froze into his face, and like ice, seemed to melt to a slack frown. A surge of energy seemed to force it's way into Ixion's body, running through his spine all the way to the tips of his fingers and toes. It was the breathtaking kind of pressure, as though something heavy kept pushing down on him, his shoulders suddenly aching with weight, his legs threatening to give out even though he was already sitting. For a moment Ixion struggled to breathe, and in the inward panic inhaled a sharp rush of air that seemed to stab him in the chest.

The pressure lasted only a second, but felt like minutes, before finally subsiding. His ears rang as oxygen rushed back into his system, sudden awareness washing over Ixion as he could feel the formations of sweat in his back, casting a chill that he was too weary to respind with even a shiver. Although he was within the dorm and, from his knowledge there was only one open window, he could hear the flattering of the school's front gates. Fighting to speak, Ixion could only manage a choked whisper, his throat and tongue suddenly inexplicably dry.

"Demon."

---

"Yoo hoo!" cried out a masked figure from the other side of the gates, a taloned claw wrapped around one of the bars. They shook the gates with vigor, metal ringing against one another as he continued to shout for attention, "I know there are still some sweeties left out there!! Open the gates why don't you?"

They glanced up to the distance of where the whole of the Academy once stood, it's ruined features too easily detectable. "I don't wanna break down this gate you know!!" they continued to shout, yells unmuffled despite the mask. As the rattles continued, additional noises added to the one man parade, creaks and groans rising as the hinges of the gate started prying off. "Fines and stuff are hell!! Haha, get it?? Hell-oooooo??"

It seemed as though another useless nuisance had arrived.

The sniper knew better than to take the imp's bait and argue with her. He'd lose, even if he won, he lost. So he simply ignored the maniac comment from Rai, nodding at the boy when he mentioned he was alright. Hunter tossed an energy bar for Stephen to munch on as he felt Id press the feather against his shoulder.

"Why did you...why did you put a feather there....?"
"I imagine it's to heal the bite wound, Jelly. Id's support, remember?"

Hunter's scary amount of knowledge on his fellow classmates showed again, though this really should have been obvious to Stephen. All three were in the tamer classes, and practice scenarios had shown Id to be the shield with Ego as the..well...blunderbuss really. Odd that Jelly didn't remember. As the healing feather did it's work, Hunter rolled his shoulder. It felt...warm. He turned to thank Id, then flinched as he saw a purple...eye or crystal, staring at him from a lifted mask, startlingly close to his face. Eika panicked over in her corner, Ego must have been teasing her or something. As Id laughed and lowered the mask, Hunter raised one hand to his face with a frown. Was there something on it that she found funny? Regardless, she offered to get him food. He waggled the energy bar in his hand as Eika was suddenly unceremoniously dumped next to him.

"No thanks, I'm...not really hungry, just kinda eating to keep my energy up."
"Hunter! You need to take care of her and stuff! Y'know. Stop getting hurt and junk, or she's gonna worry-"
"You were hurt?..."

Hunter flinched as he felt hands touch his stomach, looking down as Eika suddenly pulled back, apparently not having realized he was shirtless.

"Oh, sorry, let me get my shi-"

The sniper froze as he felt the hands press against his chest, then slide around to hug him, Eika pushing against him. The boy immediately went into a fluster, holding completely still, one hand holding onto the shirt as he looked down at the blind girl hugging his body. His eyes flicked to the others briefly, cheeks tinging red as Ixion gave them a "Get a room" look. Probably jealous to be honest, but Hunter didn't need any drama at this point.

"I'm sorry...I didn't want you getting hurt..."
"..ha...it's a-alright, I told you before, it was just a scratch. And why are you apologizing, it wasn't your fault. I just got bit, nothing big."

He gave a sort of side hug to the girl, confused why she was so upset. She clearly took school partners seriously to have been so worried about a boy she had barely met. That was admirable, if...unusual.

"Besides, I'm indestructible. Doesn't matter how many demons come at me, they'll only slow me down. So don't worry."

Hunter gave a smile, forgetting briefly that she couldn't see his face as he gently pushed her up again.

"I'll always come back to you."

A pause...wait, crap! The sniper realized how that sentence sounded, immediately regretting the choice of words. He had meant since she was his partner, since she seemed worried, but he essentially made it sound like a lover's promise. He opened his mouth to clarify when he heard the gate rattling, and saw Ixion freeze as if his organs had melted. A single word whispered from the boy sent Hunter in motion.

"Demon."
"Yoo hoo!"

Hunter leaped onto his feet, the stool kicking backwards as he pulled the shirt over his head and moved towards his rifle case, yelling as he marched towards the window.

"Everyone get up now!"
"I know there are still some sweeties left out there!! Open the gates why don't you?"

A loud clunk, and Hunter's rifle was assembled as he hefted the window open, laying the barrel out and using the scope to survey the situation. God was he grateful he went and got ammo before resting. One figure, shaking the gates violently. The metal was twisting and bending under it's grip, and the face was shrouded by a hood and a generic mask that said absolutely nothing about them. Even with the powerful zoom of the rifle, Hunter couldn't tell anything about the figure except that they had claws, which...didn't help, seeing as several students here did as well. It wasn't a teacher, a teacher would have opened the gate. It probably wasn't a student, a student wouldn't come back here alone, let alone with such a carefree attitude. The sniper kept the figure in his sights, not looking back as he spoke.

"One figure, front gate. It's not moving, but it looks like they're ripping the gates off the hinges. We need a plan, and this time it can't be all of us running around like idiots, let's work together this time."

Hunter couldn't stop the edge to his voice. Everyone was tired. He was literally contemplating talking to everyone about making a plan and trying to set up some kind of...rank or hierarchy or something to help everyone avoid confusion if something like this happened again when SOMETHING LIKE THIS HAPPENED AGAIN. And worse yet, Hunter was on ground level. The worst place for overwatch, the worst place for a sniper.

Maxamillion "Hulk" Lovecannon

Maxamillion had ignored most of his surroundings, mindlessly walking to find some secluded place. He had planned on maybe just sitting back for a wile, continuing his watch of the sky, but...It looked like fate disagreed with his notion. An annoying and somewhat sickly sweet tone rang out near to his left, it was followed up by a metallic rattling, somebody had wrapped itself into the gates and was trying to take it way with them.

Looking to the gates Max was faced with an odd masked figure. The plump and pale "face" that searched the area honestly irked him a bit. He debated on just walking away, they didn't seem to notice him and he was around a corner, meaning the others in the dorm wouldn't be able to notice him jut bail...shit

Fixing his glove straps, just in case, he walked back to be directly in front of the gate, still keeping a safe distance away from the man. "...Yo." He greeted dryly. He knew this feeling they were giving off. Probably not anyone friendly here. "What do you want?.." He asked this as he gave a sideways glance to the dorm, something was coming out of the window...oh, right..

Nonchalantly taking a step to the left, Max allowed for a clear shot. He wasn't sure exactly what was going to go down but backup was always...convenient. Though he hoped he wouldn't need it. Getting his ass beat by some dude wearing the face of a Japanese old woman didn't really sit well with him.

Max searched the person over, his unnatural eyes scanned the mask, the body, the arms, the...claws. "This isn't going to go over smoothly is it?" He asked with a hefty sigh. He seemed more annoyed than scared or worried. His apathy shifted only slightly. We should have made a plan...

He stuck his hand back in his pocket, and using his now hidden fingers he slid the necklace slowly off his arm and into his hand. He wondered how well he could bind this...'man'. They were obviously a few levels higher than other demons he had faced...

Sel'ar M. Eindz

Sel'ar just sulked a bit when she was told to speak up. She wasn't so good at that...

She honestly didn't get people to push her around, asking people was always past her mind, it felt like she was causing them an inconvenience, and she hated doing that.

"Uh...okay..." She managed meekly, a tad startled as a bit more ordered than asked to start healing. Raising her slightly shaky hands she squinted a minute amount. Half a second of nothing, then her hands stopped wavering, then a small orb of pink. It was just the size of a marble, and gave a soft glow. It grew slightly, swelling to touch her palms. She connected eyes for once with Angel, as if to say it was about to start. She moved her arms elegantly, coming to hover over the shoulder in a smooth motion. The orb trailed along, coming to encompass the wound.

A soft and warm feeling, that was how she had been told it felt. A little tingly maybe, but all in all, relieving. Keeping the orb over the wound it slowly seemed to fade away, the bruise shrinking in the glow until it the pink headed demon could not longer see it. A soft and high pitched hum came to her as she went about her work. Fur Elise echoed a bit quietly as she moved her hands somewhat to make sure she had covered the damaged.

Slowly, the orb shrunk, coming back to a marble. "B-better?" She asked sheepishly, her eyes switching between the boys shoulder and his eyes. She kept the magoc flowing, ready to try and tend to whatever other damage her partner had taken.

That smell.

Sickly sweet, the smell of darkness and light, clay, earth, fire, water all at once. A demon. Close, a demon was close but she couldn't see it. Oh... No wonder, she was asleep... But the smell was real. Very real. Wake up, wake up. Ase had eventually conked out it seemed, and as her eyes flashed open with sudden confusion she growled at her own laziness. Her body felt light, her head heavy and inclined, and there was someone petting her head. She glanced upwards, sighing and sneering at the familiar blue hair. No, no time for complaining, there was danger nearby. She slowly sat up, groaning as the petting continued despite her movement, and before she could move to get up from the couch her partner froze, the petting stopped completely.

"Ixion...?" She whispered, red eyes scanning his face. He looked grave, breathless. Had he been injured in the battle after all? She rose without hesitation and stood in front of him, putting gentle hands on his shoulders. He was shaking, sweat was forming, she could see it all with only a glance. A panic attack. Her sharpened teeth gnawed at her bottom lip, and as she began digging into her pockets his voice penetrated her mind as a mere whisper. He knew there was a demon, how? Was that the reason for the panic attack? Did this idiot have some sort of demon radar in the form of body-breaking shivers? Ase took a step back, then shrugged and pulled a stone from her pocket. It was purple and raw, a small amount of lepidolite which was normally used to calm panic attacks and sooth pain. She brought it up to her forehead, whispered a mantra, and then placed it to Ixion's forehead, where the third eye lay. The rock glowed momentarily, warming between her fingertips, and then dulled back to it's original lack-luster self. Ase placed the stone on her partner's lap,

"Hang onto that and calm down, you're even more worthless if you can't breath. I'll go see what's going on."

The words were quiet and harsh but Ase's face was soft, and she glanced up to the group around her. The sniper was already scoping out the area, and she listened to his gained info before addressing the crowd with a shaking voice,

"I'm going to go out and ask a few questions. I-If..." She took a sharp breath. Talking to crowds was not really her thing, "if he looks ready to jump, open fire." The last phrase was addressed specifically to Hunter, the sniper. She finally nodded and crouched down to the wooden floor, ripping open her index finger again. She drew a magic circle and summoned Patron, then quickly wiped away the drawing and turned towards the door, drifting out of the room without a second word. Outside, she stared in the general direction of the gate, and blinked at the sight of another figure, the huge back of a student. He had a rich sound name, if she remembered correctly. Ase smirked, feeling just a bit safer with a meat shield around, and with silent and quick steps she made her way to the gate.

Once behind Max she tugged on his shirt, trying to stop him from pouncing, red eyes focused solely on the masked demon behind the bars. She bowed lightly, a polite greeting gained from home, and moved a bit in front of the tall hunter beside her,

"Hello." She greeted the demon, red eyes wide and emotionless. There was something... Familiar about this guy. His mannerisms and speech gave her a feeling of anger, yet she couldn't pin point why. Other then that, Ase realized he was strong. This one was on a different level from the little ones before; it was very possible that she wouldn't be able to exorcise him in one go if things got ugly. And even from behind the bars she felt his presence, he could possibly be the reason for the attack on the academy. Curiosity gave her courage, and with a short nod she started,

"I'm sorry, but could you please no break that gate. My sniper friend in the building back there wouldn't like it very much, and we don't want you getting hurt now, do we." There was a hint of intimidation behind her still gaze, and the shadow of a smirk on her lips. Demons were much easier to talk to, "anyway, if you don't mind, sir, I have a few questions for you." She rose her free hand, a slender finger raising to indicate the number one,

"First question, what do you want with a bunch of punks like us. There's probably a thousand, much more delectable souls down in the town." Her second finger rose, eyes narrowing slightly, "second, are you the reason for... This?" Her hand which held Patron rose, waving to the destroyed school building, "did you call on that army from earlier?" Her third and final finger rose, red eyes gleaming,

"Third, do... I know you?"

The last question was more for herself. This demon was giving her an awful sense of deja vu, and she didn't have a clue why. Maybe it was because... No. No. She awaited the answers with a cold stare, lowering her hands lazily.