Ask to Join Blue Exorcist :: True Cross's Lie

[Platinum_]

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The world was always a dark place. A place full of happiness and fellowship, overrun by a state of fear, and terror. All thanks to them. The demons are a nasty, spiritual presences that had taken the liberty of leaving their own spiritual world, Gehenna, and come to Earth - causing conflicts with innocent people. They would place temptings on humans in order to possess them, kill them, kill others, or all of the above. Their 'ruler', Satan, is the worst of them all. He can't spawn on Earth, however, because he would simply kill any living creature that he tried to take over. These demons have been causing trouble since as far back as mankind can remember. However, Exorcists then rose up in action. They used their talents and abilities to wipe out these demons from reigning terror upon Earth - and it has been a constant battle ever since.

~*~*~

Explosions. And a lot of them. Screaming. Loud. Flames, demons, and many other elements of battle were seen flying across the sky and ground below. Elijah was crouched, hiding as his back was to large chunks of boulders. He peered around the large rock as he heard the sound of a bellowing laugh. Surely enough, a very tall, and demonic looking humanoid stood a couple yards away - but he stared straight at Elijah.

Elijah quickly ripped out a piece of paper with a summoning star drawn on. Along with the paper he pulled out a small needle, lightly pricking his finger. He allowed the blood to drip on the small paper, and started to chant a phrase in a different language. Soon enough, a stream of light burst from the paper and formed into a large demon in a similar form to a wolf - half of its body a midnight black and the other side a piercing white. Its tail was long, ending in a sharp point. It was a Byakko spirit, known as "Divine Servants" to certain Tamers. The Byakko wolf then swung gracefully around the rubble and charged straight towards the opposing demon, growling and releasing its sharp fangs. Its bite pierced into the man as he tried fight it off.

Sad, considering that just a few days prior, he was a Cram School teacher. Battle? This was more like a war. A fight between the student Exorcist and True Cross Academy, who has been revealed to be overrun by evil agents and staff that has been possessed by demons hoping to spoil the goals of True Cross. It was just like any other day, until the staff and professors started to act oddly. Before they knew it, the students were getting attacked, and damage had started to be done to once glorious and magnificent building. The Principle was no where to be found as battles to the death broke out. Now, all that was left to do for the students was use what they have learned, battle the enemy, and somehow find out what has started all of this.

 

[DragonFlye]

Cain cursed under his breath as he tore open the sleeve of an injured student's blazer to show the charred, leathery skin of her lower arm beneath. He dug through the messenger bag that he'd slung over his shoulder and removed his canteen. The student poured cool water onto the wound, eliciting a hiss and whimper from the stranger that he was treating.

"Close your eyes," he suggested, both to take her mind off of the pain and warfare nearby. The fact that she was feeling pain at all, if he had his facts straight, was really a positive sign. It meant the demonic flames hadn't damaged the skin all the way down to the nerves. He wasn't even sure what civilians were still doing around campus; he'd figured the area would have been evacuated by now, with demons of all types running loose and wrecking havoc on the town around them. In fact, as the fight rang on, he imagined that more and more civilians would be affected by temptaints and become aware of the darker side to their world. Biting his own tongue, Cain tore open a package of gauze and began to wrap the arm with gentle, deft fingers. It would do in the meantime, but she and a number of other wounded really needed a more experienced Doctor to treat their wounds.

He heard a familiar snarl, and craned his neck to see a flash of black and white fur. He instantly recognized the wolfish Byakko familiar of his fellow classmate, Elijah Fritz, as it sunk its deadly teeth into one of their former teachers. It was a terrifying sight, sure, but not unwelcome.

"Get out of here, as soon as you can," he told the burned student before pulling his Beretta from the holster on his thigh and taking aim at a passing Ghoul. The bullet struck the possessed creature in the neck, and the corpse fell with a screech. This is unfair, he thought dimly. They were far outnumbered by both staff and demons alike. In fact, Elijah was the only other Cram School student he could spot through the smoke and the fray, and he thought they should at least stay together. Safety in numbers, right? "Fritz!" He called to his classmate over the din, hoping that he hadn't lost him in the commotion. "Is anyone there?"

 

[Platinum_]

Smoke was arising very quickly around the area. As Elijah's familiar violently attacked the former teacher, the grown man retaliated, using demonic flames to be emitted from his skin and shot point-blank on the Byakko. The flames would cause thick smoke and haze to only grow denser, making it hard to see even a couple feet away. A screeching of pain could be heard from the spirit, causing Elijah to panic.

"Onmyo!" The teen called out to the familiar. The last thing he needed was for his strongest of his minimum summons to get injured at this time.

However, Elijah's attention was turned as he heard the call of an acquainted voice. According to how it sounded it must've been Cain! Thank god, someone he knew was still alive.

"C-Cain? Yes, its me! Come closer!" He called, hoping the classmate around his age could track his voice.

But surely enough, his attention was diverged again as he heard the growling once more - meaning Onmyo wasn't quite down and out yet. Elijah cursed himself for not examining the corrupted professor before the smoke had risen - because now he had no idea which kind of chants to use that could help defeat him. Running out of options due to the lack of vision, Eli formed his hands together, both his index and middle fingers meeting eachother and began mumbling techniques he had managed to learn - hopefully he had enough energy to pull it off.

"Light, Darkness; Ghoul and Spirit; Yin and Yang! - Kurayami o uchinomesu!"

As Elijah chanted, a light could be seen faintly shining through the smoke, and in a matter of seconds, the wolf spirit had shot forwards at the teacher, spinning rapidly like a jet. Onmyo's claws and fangs glowed brightly as he attacked the demon-man with a barrage of attacks too fast even for Elijah's eyes to see. The light faded after the attack finished, and the smoke was able to fizzle down to the point where it wasn't a struggle to see. Right before them stood the Byakko familiar, hovering above the dead body of the former teacher - which was now being deteriorated in white flames. Elijah was relieved, but exhausted. He fell to one knee, keeping his left arm planted on the ground in order to keep balanced.

"Im glad to see your okay." He spoke to Cain. "Who'd of thought the Academy would come to...this?" He panted, looking up at the pitch black sky, filled with terrorizing monsters and flames of all kinds of heats. War cries and explosions could be heard from all directions.

 

[DragonFlye]

Cain covered his mouth and nose with the neck of his shirt, but he couldn't help from coughing at the smoke and ash floating through the polluted air anyway. He honed in immediately on Elijah's voice and the sounds of a fight with relief and worry, picking his way over rubble and still-smoldering material. His finger was still resting on the Beretta's trigger, but holding the muzzle to the ground, and he finally spotted his classmate through the smoke just as their instructor was burning into white flame. Before he could say anything, however, he saw Elijah drop to one knee. Cain knelt beside him in concern, visually inspecting for injuries; a powerful attack like that seemed to take a lot of energy from the Tamer, so he held the canteen of water out as an offering.

"Yeah, I can hardly believe all this myself," he said, solemn. It was hard to believe that only a few days ago, this had been a thriving center for Exorcists and normal humans alike. "This time, I wish this was another one of their tests...like, a really elaborate final exam, but..." Cain paused with a shake of his head. "I hate to say it, but we should find some kind of shelter to rest. We can't keep up like this for much longer at the pace we're going, and we're no good to anyone if we're exhausted, yeah?"

 

[Platinum_]

Elijah gratefully accepted the water, thanking his classmate as he downed a couple sips of it. He was glad that the Dragoon-Doctor was around, having usually always been ready for any type of situation. A talented Exorcist indeed. He looked ahead at Onmyo, who nodded towards Elijah and instantly vanished after completing its task and defeating "the evil", a negative side-effect to the command given. The familiar wouldn't be able to be summoned again until a couple of hours. Damnit.

The exhausted Tamer stood, breathing deeply and stretching his limbs out, revealing a couple of scratches and burns - but they didn't seem to be bothering the boy too much. He chuckled a bit as he heard Cain's wishes for this to be a test of sorts. And honestly, from his past experiences in True Cross, he wouldn't be surprised if he was. But that was just a distant hope.

"Yeah, what a relief that would be... but they would've quit the exam by now, I would assume. This has gotten so out of hand."

He continued to listen to Cain's suggestions, and nodded in agreement. There wasn't any hope for familiars anymore, as Elijah's worn out body just wouldn't allow it for the time being. He became fearful, as he realized he didn't know where the other classmates were, or who they were all even up against. Who was "the boss" in all of this? Was there even any one person that caused all of this, or was it just a break out of anarchy? Whatever the case was, Elijah just wanted to make it out alive. The safety of himself and his friends had become his priority; although there wasn't much he could do in the current state - and Cain seemed quite exhausted as well.

"We need to try to find others, too, that way we could group up safely. But this place is a mess - youre right, we need to get to a safe location and plan there. Lets move out for no-"

However, he was cut off as he heard a loud engine coming closer to them - but he couldn't locate the source of the sound until large amounts of wind kicked up around the area from above. Gazing upwards he noticed a black aircraft bearing the True Cross sigil. It was small, but impressive, considering he didn't even know the Academy had possession of transportation of that level. It began to descend slowly from the sky, multiple gunshots being seen shooting from the sides, rapidly taking out a plethora of demons who were nearby.

Elijah had to raise his arm to guard his eyes from the dust that kicked up from the ground as the air craft lowered. A familiar face was then noticed, outstretching an arm to the two students. It was a woman, adorning glasses and the Senior Exorcist uniform.

"Uraka?" Elijah called above the sound of the wind.

"No time to explain. Hop in." She replied, a tone of deathly seriousness in her voice.

The girl was a very capable Exorcist, being said to have trained at True Cross since her freshmen year. She helped assist in major cases, and even helped co-teach some of the younger Cram school students. Elijah didn't trust her at first, as she could be just as corrupted as the other Staff members that students were dying upon encounter in that very location. However, when he saw the other high ranking Exorcist behind her in the aircraft as well, he took her hand and hopped on. She remained reaching out, telling Cain to get in as well.

 

[DragonFlye]

Cain smiled and nodded, but his marksman's eye caught a number of small wounds underneath and through the fabric of his comrade's clothing, and his arm automatically dropped to the bag at his hip. Before he could comment, however, a loud roar caught him off guard. He craned his neck to the burning sky to see that the source of the sound wasn't demonic, but belonged to the dark shape of an aircraft above them.

He wanted to laugh in relief as it gunned down several nearby demons, but the light flickered just enough to illuminate the familiar symbol of the True Cross Order, and his expression straightened a bit. Most of the people wearing that symbol were either missing or had turned on them, but it was probably even riskier to stay on the battlefield.

Cain holstered his weapon before taking the woman's hand to follow Elijah into the craft. He murmured a polite "thank you" as he shook ash from his black hair and tried to brush it from his blazer, but the particles simply smudged on the dark fabric, so he let them be. He let his gaze wander the aircraft, impressed. It was clean and quiet, especially in comparison to the ruins they'd just been in, and he found himself suddenly feeling out of place. This feeling mixed with surprise at the number of superior-ranked Exorcists on board, and he automatically straightened his spine a bit. His and Elijah's skills were something to be proud of, yes, but this woman and the other Exorcists on the plane? They were of a different caliber altogether, and his admiration turned a bit bitter when he thought that if these people'd had access to this kind of firepower and they didn't appear to be in on whatever was ravaging the school, why had it had taken until now to send help? On the other hand, could it have been possible that this attack reached further than just the Academy?

"Where have you been?" The accusatory tone was uncharacteristic of him, but he couldn't help it. "The school's been under fire for days. Unless... is the Academy the only place that's been corrupted?"

 

[Platinum_]

Once settled in the aircraft, Elijah felt relieved when seeing the number of Elite's on board - however his eyes were laid upon a couple of the other students that were Cain and his classmates. Elijah, following Cain's lead in brushing off the ash from his shoulder, while also removing the tightened uniform tie that was draping from his neck, went over and knelt with the small number of classmates, slightly conversing with them. They looked just as roughed up as he was, but he was glad to see them alive, at least. There were only a couple of Doctors tending to them, and Elijah was about to turn and ask Cain for assistance as well, until he released a question that piqued his interest.

He demanded an answer as to what took this team (of sorts) so long to find and retreive the people who had been struggling in this fight for the past couple of days - and now that he thought of it, Elijah was quite surprised at the their timing as well. He stood, stepping up to the side of Cain, intent on hearing Uraka's response.

The young woman pushed up her glasses with her gloved hands before giving a response. She then looked the two boys in the eyes, as serious as she has ever been.

"We apologies for our unfortunate delay, but look to your side, there. Those are your classmates, and it took time to find them. We discovered a couple of them burried under piles of ash and rubble. One of them was on the verge of death." She explained. Her lips parted to continue, but Elijah spoke above her.

"But some of them have already died. That doesn't answer his question. Where were you guys? Some of us needed saving as soon as this whole hell broke out anyways....what is this, anyways?"

"As she said," one of the nearby male Seniors spoke up. "We were retrieving your colleagues. Look around, kid. This is war. We have discovered moles and traitors within other anomaly agencies that have been on extensive-duty infiltration of True Cross. Why? We don't know, but that's why we need to figure this out, and at this point we hardly know who's on our side and who isn't. We are very low on man-power, and we need as much power that we can trust on our side. So, sorry to inform you that this isn't a rescue task force - it's an Operation Mission."

Elijah's eyes widened at the explanation. They had to be kidding. A mission? He looked around the hovercraft room - and at the 3 injured fellow students. They couldn't expect any fight out of them in this state...could they?

 

[DragonFlye]

Cain dipped his gaze and looked to the three students, who'd completely escaped his notice until that point. What could he say to that? Their actions made sense He supposed, but all of those people left down there... He knelt beside Elijah, and watched the more experienced Doctors work with curiosity. They seemed to be checking for residual poisonings, so he followed their lead, though he was a Dragoon first and foremost, therefore wasn't as versed in the art of medicine as others who'd chosen it as their major.

"What do you think? About everything," He asked his comrade softly as he inspected a raw bite. Fritz had always seemed a good judge of character to him, so he was quite interested to know what he thought of all this. "It sounds like True Cross is in pretty bad shape. If this is a war... it looks like we're losing. And losing from within, too." He opened his bag and removed what little medical supplies he'd cannibalized from some basic first-aid kits around the school and placed them on the floor in case they were needed.

 

[UmbreonEevee]

August couldn't see anything. It was dark with dust, dirt, fire, ash, and debris everywhere. She coughed as she breathed in some smoke from the air as a familiar professor came at her. She cursed under her breath unsheathed her katana that had been permanently laced in holy water. She quickly slashed the professor in the chest causing him to scream, most likely bringing more demons over, and fall over dead.

She covered her mouth with her left hand since her right hand had her katana in it. She ran to where she saw dust and dirt flying everywhere. Her eyes were burning so she sheilded them with her right arm, squinting up into the dark fog.

She didn't know if there would be more demons coming or reinforcements of what was left of the True Cross Academy. She had heard her classmates, Cain and Elijah, yelling for each other but she couldn't tell where the yells were coming from and she was too busy killing a demon with her hand guns. Before the yelling she had seen a faint glow, knowing it was Elijah's familiar, Onmyo. She ran to a different spot of debris to hide from incoming demons and other supernatural beings.

 

[Platinum_]

Elijah was about to respond in his conversation with Cain as he watched his friend help out in aiding the wounded students, but before anything could leave his lips, the driver of the hovercraft immediately shouted that he had located another student that seemed to be alive. Instead of urgency, though, his voice was filled with a bit of hope, as if it was some celebrity that was spotted. Elijah stood to his feet and ran to one of the large side-windows of the craft before peering down. He noticed nothing at first, as the dust and dirt made vision impossible, until the hovercraft began lowering to the ground once again.

The wind pushed all of the dirt back in a cluster as it had previously done, allowing the blonde tamer to spot August, and the pilot's excitement was then understood. Elijah recognized August as one of their classmates, who happened to have been a demon-human mix, something that would surely come in handy one way or another in this battle of species. One of the senior Exorcists leaped down from the lowered walkway of the craft to retrieve August, extending a hand to her and hoisting her up if she were to accept it.

Elijah watched closely, relieved to see that even though she seemed a bit injured, the Knight-Dragoon fighter was in good shape. He made his way to her, asking if she was okay once she had been directed to the other students.

 

[UmbreonEevee]

August saw a hand so she took it, being hoisted up right after. She looked around at the people in the helicopter noting the higher ups, injured students, Elijah, and Cain. She sighed in relief, sheathing her katana and beginning to rub the dirt and whatever else was in her eyes out. She looked at Elijah and smiled, hearing his question. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just a few calls that's all," she said as she remembered being called by the demon who was behind all of this.

She couldn't tell who it was since she had only been to Gehenna once and she only met the lower class. Though, she had met Satan, she would never tell anyone. Satan had asked her to become a full fledged demon and join his army but August had refused and strangely enough he let her go. She has always wondered why he let her go but never pushed too far and opened the Gehenna gate. No, she would never do that, for her classmates and the worlds sake.

August then relized that she had only told the principle and the higher ups that she had gotten callings every so often at school so she didn't know if Elijah or Cain would know about the callings. She stopped rubbing her eyes when she was sure that all the dust and everything else was out of her eyes when she felt a stinging at her side, along with red and black blood mixed coming of the wound. "I'm out of my medicine," she said, cursing under her breath. She looked at Cain then at the doctor then at the higher ups. "Where's the special doctor? I can't have a normal doctor fix this up," she said when she didn't see the special doctor that treated half-bloods.

 

[DragonFlye]

Cain perked his head in interest as a commotion stirred, and shoutings about another survivor echoed through the hull, attracting Elijah to the windows. He grinned and was about to ask who it was, but the walkway lowered and a whoosh of air interrupted his question. Not that he needed to ask; the figure they hauled in from the outside appeared to be none other than August Dawn, a fellow classmate and a unique hybrid. He smiled and nodded a greeting once she'd boarded, and the atmosphere seemed, for a moment, a bit lighter until attention was called to her wound.

"We're kinda short on, well, everybody," Cain told her grimly, taking a close look at the fresh and dried blood. He was only familiar with basic battlefield first aid—he might be able to slow the bleeding, but he wasn't exactly a full Doctor, much less a special one, that specialized in hybrids. "I don't know about any medicine onboard, but how vital is it? Could we make do with anything on board?"

 

[UmbreonEevee]

August looked at Cain and smiled then looked at her wound. "It doesn't hurt but the Medicine isn't for the wound. It's to block out the callings and the ringing that I get," she said as she tapped her head with her index finger. "I took my last one a few hours ago so it should last a couple more hours but I don't know how many more," she said with a sigh as she placed her hand on the floor of the helicopter. "Why are they so late?" She asked/whispered to Cain as she looked at the higher ups. Yes, she respected hem but they had arrived a couple days too late and they had this a helicopter that nobody knew they had. That's a whole other mystery on its own so she'd ask that later as now seemed like not a good idea.

She looked at her wound then the blood flowing out of it. "Cain, do you have bandages, just for the moment," she said to Cain, she wanted to stop the bleeding so she could question/accuse them, she wasn't sure which yet, and not look pathetic with blood dripping out of a fresh wound. She looked at the higher ups then down at the war zone, something was definitely wrong with this picture. She thought and thought but she couldn't think of anything. They couldn't possibly be demons, she didn't sense it, but they're late. It just kept bugging her and she couldn't put her finger on why. Why did it bug her to the point were her foot tapped against the metal of the helicopter. "Alright, I think we all need answers here," she said as she looked back at the higher ups. "Why are you late? The citizens didn't even get evacuated," she growled at the thought of how many citizens were harmed and killed. "Because if this is a rescue mission, you've failed in getting them. Why you guys taught us to get as many as we can as fast as we can then you don't, I don't understand but this is just too late. It's been days since this happened and who knows how many half bloods turned on their friends!" She was yelling at this point, somehow standing though she was leaning against the wall. "This isn't right, this is almost like you want to see how many people will die and live but that couldn't be right, or could it?" She said as she looked directly into the eyes of one of the higher ups.

 

[Platinum_]

Fortunately one of the Exorcists on board was a specialists Doctor, who had decent knowledge on specific treatments for spiritual wounds involving demonic affairs and conflicts. The Doctor made his way towards August and Cain and laid out a large palate of different medicines to work with. He chanted over a bottle of odd, transparent liquid before pouring some out on two rags and administrating it on Augusts's gashes. He handed another rag with bandages to Cain and prompted him to do the same. Meanwhile the man pulled out a bottle of pills and handed them to the shouting half-demon. They were made up of the meds in order to help of her 'callings' and other mental inconveniences.

Elijah stood near Uraka, who watched as August was given treatment and shouting at them. She seemed a bit relieved, though, that August was here - meaning that the hybrid girl was somewhat of a symbol of hope during all of this. But her facial expressions remained stone-faced. Elijah remained in his ticked off mood, his hands resting on his hip and an eyebrow raised, waiting for an explanation on all of this mess. He wasn't going to go on in this battle uninformed. As the craft hoisted itself back in the air and took off for the large main building of the Academy, the woman spoke up.

"Now, if everyone is done ranting, listen up. As some of you have figured out by now, True Cross has been betrayed and tricked - we have had double-agents among our ranks for years on end now, gathering Intel and crucial information about the Academy and relaying them to an evil force that we assume is out to destroy us...and by 'us', I mean Exorcists and most likely humanity as a whole. Whoever it is has demonic allies and abilities, so that is why I will repeat to you all: This is not a rescue mission to you all, this is an Operation to take back what is ours, and to extinguish whatever threats are on our hands at the moment. How will we do this with such little man power? We arent exactly sure. Right now we are heading back behind the Academy's main building, as we have other Squads waiting for us there. The general studies students are currently aiding in the evacuation of the remaining civilians. The enemy seems to have prioritized attacking True Cross over the city itself, so we don't have that many citizen casualties, but we expect they will stretch this terror over the city any time now. To prevent that we are going to meet up with the others and devise a plan. We are trying our best to heal you all up the best we can, but we need all of you to aid us in this 'war' whether you feel in top shape or not."

Elijah listened on to the purple-haired woman speak. Her words stung as all of what was happening came into the teen's realization. Death could very much be a possibility at this point. This was for real. Hearing enough, Elijah made his way to the wall beside Cain, and sunk to a sitting position, holding his head with his hands. He began trying to pace his breathing, as he was starting to panic. But he managed to get a grip of himself, at least for the moment. He turned to his fellow students.

"Guys...Shes right...we need to fight, even with our current state. We can't afford to let whatever these demons want accomplished to be done..."

 

[UmbreonEevee]

August looked at Elijah with her mouth opened since she was just about to yell at Uraka. "Elijah," she said with sympathy when she noticed his condition. She leaned down, her knees to the floor, and put her hand on Elijah's shoulder. "Elijah, calm down. Don't let fear take you over. Deep breathes," she told him as she glanced at Cain. She stood up and nodded to Cain, looking at Elijah.

"If this was an Operation then why didn't you come earlier than his? You would have more people," she asked Uraka as she glared at her. "And less dead people," she added with a growl. She could feel herself gradually getting angrier and she could hear the faint whisper of a call coming. "Unless you wanted all those people to die, see who survives then use them! We can't save the world and we sure can't have demons crawling around!" She yelled, her hand shipping out to the side, in a gesture to the war zone. "I'm not sure if I want to jump out of this helicopter or stay in here, I'm so disappointed and confused! An Operation! What a joke! Here the world is about to end and here you are planning an Operation that may or may not work!" She yelled, slamming her hand on the metal beside the door of the helicopter. She was angry, yes that was true, but she wanted answers. To know if she was just being used or if they were all going to die or if they would be the ones to save the world this time. "Sure, if you want to use me to save the world, that's fine. I may be okay with it but others might not. You should ask if people want to die to save the world, maybe they don't want to because it's kind of obvious that we're being used!" She said, yelling the last part. Her wolf-demon was angry and she was angry and she didn't take another pill to block the calling.

She cursed under her breath as the person became louder and louder. "Medicine," she said, putting her hand out to the doctor that had offered her them. She took one, swallowing it without any water. She then looked at Uraka with a glare as she put her hands down, balling her fist up.

 

[DragonFlye]

Cain accepted the rag and followed the Senior Doctor's lead with a light touch as he watched the exchange quickly escalate into a near shouting match, though Uraka remained as stone-faced as he'd ever seen her. He paused in his cleaning of August's wounds to throw a concerned look at Elijah, who seemed to be on the verge of hyperventilating beside him. He tried to put an arm on August's, as he sensed her temper flaring and an almost tangible tension rising in the confined space. It was almost making him a bit claustrophobic as well, even though there was no shortage of space onboard.

"He's right, though," Cain noted, trying his best to keep his voice even, though he couldn't fully hide a tremor. "It'd be irresponsible of us to leave this city and any Exorcists in it to the demons; there's no decision there for me." He could compromise some of his freedom if it meant a chance to, at least, contain this disaster, or rather, he had to. He recalled what Uraka had said to them about the reinforcement Squads—that, at least, was news to him, and he felt another bit of hope. "And with higher and higher numbers, we might find more survivors—how many have been gathered so far?"

 

[UmbreonEevee]

August was shocked to hear that Cain and Elijah were still on Uraka's side. "You're on her side too! You don't think there is something wrong with this?!" She asked with shock and anger as she moved her arm away from Cain's, noticing he was trying to calm her down. "No one see's a problem with them just showing up a couple days into the war, retrieve survivors, and say this is an Operation! No one see's the problem with that?! Why didn't they come on the day of the war?!" She yelled, anger seething in her voice. "Because I see a huge problem here! They're only collecting us, the one's that have survived! To use us in the battle of the demons! What are they going to do with us afterwards?! Kill us?!" She yelled as she felt her anger boiling inside, and she felt like hitting someone though she stopped herself because the closest person to her was Cain and she didn't want to hit him.

Her demon was begging to come out but she always had very good control over her demon. She leaned against the metal as she tried her best to calm herself with her arms crossed and her combat boots crossed over each other at the ankle. "All right, look, I'm not going to move without my answers, and I want to know why they're late, why they want us, and what we're doing in this 'Operation'" she said as she looked at Uraka in the eyes with a glare.

 

[Platinum_]

Uraka shot her piercing green glance into August's eyes. The other exorcists seemed to be a bit intimidated by the hybrid's episode of shouting and stepped up to the sides of Uraka. Howeve, the young woman only then sighed, as if giving up any hope - but then retaliated immediately in an authoritative voice.

"August. Shut up - right now! You ignorant and uninformed child. If you would keep that mouth of yours shut, you would think more rationally. We couldn't run around babysitting all of you because we ourselves had to deal with the ambush first hand. The enemy infiltrated our high ranks, and you could never imagine what it is like to have a colleague hold demonic fangs up against you out of no where. You are not even close to the only victims here, so whining about not being retrieved earlier is selfish and bratty of you! Don't get out of control or we will have you handel-"

"STOP!" Elijah shouted, gripping the sides of his head tighter as he cut off Uraka. All of the conflict and arguments wasn't helping the entrapment or anxiety rising within him - he himself regretted of being apart of the dispute earlier. Elijah managed to regain posture up on his feet, and looked to the two girls.

"You guys - threats and shouting is not what is going to fix this thing. August, please, we have to stay calm. I know this is...literally, hell right now - but there's nothing we can do now. These seniors have probably been running around making sure they can locate the hundreds of other defenseless students and staff before they could make their way to get us...it's not like there was any warning that any of this was coming. You have to realize that these guys are our allies, or from what we can tell for now, they are. If they're using us....so what? This is a battle now - and the demons seem to be on the upper hand. It wouldn't make any sense for True cross to kill us, because they need every bit of man power that we can get." Elijah explained, speaking purely out of initiative after thinking through the situation. Uraka nodded in agreement.

"We haven't been sitting around lazily - we've been fighting for our asses too." She spoke, lower a bit of her collar, revealing a scar from an ugly gash. Many of the other Exorcists adorned sublte bandages of some kind, with fresh blood seeping through. "The only time of using that you guys are going through, is being sent into this war for our city - and we will be right there on the battlefield as well. If any of us die, we all do. Now, sit tight for now, everyone - we will be landing in our destination point soon. There, we will be assorting the Squadrons and their tasks. Be ready to move out."

After Uraka spoke, she moved back towards the front of the hovercraft, entering a door that most likely entered the pilot area. The small door closed behind her, and Elijah returned to his sitting position, taking in every word that was just explained to them. He tried not to linger on the pressure of it all, and resorted to breathing exercises. Soon enough, just as Uraka mentioned, the hovercraft came to a slow, and everyone could feel it lowering to the ground. Elijah looked off to the side, seeing that the majority of the remaining students were seemingly feeling better, but still injured.

The door to the hull opened, and the students were directed off and on to the ground. As Elijah looked around, he observed that as Uraka has mentioned, they surely enough were behind the Academy - and oddly enough the land around his wasn't nearly as damaged as the outside campus was. Suddenly another aircraft came landing nearby, and exiting it was a smaller number of Cram School exorcists as well. Everyone was ushered into a large round huddle of people, and the higher up's stood in the center. A tall man with pure white hair stood up to speak - one of the dean's of the school. The other professionals stood at 'attention' behind him.

"Hello, all. Students, Seniors, and our Starred Exorcists - I assume your higher ranks informed you all on the current devastation at hand, and I apologize that you have all been dragged into this mess. We currently have no idea who is truly affiliated with True Cross and who is not -- even our own Principle has been unable to be located at this time. At this point we will be assigning the squadrons and your duties - so listen up."

The Dean went on to call out squads of four, with one being the captain. Elijah listened as he heard his name, along with Cain and August, being assigned to a Squad - not surprising, considering they were in the same class. Uraka was then assigned as well, but as captain. Also not surprising; and although its gave Elijah comfort that the talented Dragoon Exorcists would be with them, he figured it would cause some bad blood one way or another. The Dean went on to explain the goals and duties of each team.

"Lastly, Squad Uraka," The dean spoke after giving out all of the others. "You guys are assigned with scoping out the interior of the school. We have decorated your team in a fashion that is perfectly suited for this task. You will go into the Academy and find any clues or leads as to where our Principle is - and if he is trust worthy or not. We will have other squads covering you in certain distances, so do not fear that all of the burden is on you."

And that killed Elijah. They were tasked to finding the current head of True Cross, dealing with god-knows-what inside of the Academy, while finding out the current state of the situation. No pressure, right. He did have slight faith though, because he realized the squad had a healthy balance - between the secret weapon of August, and the long-range force of Uraka and Cain (as well as the medical support). The blonde looked to the others and nodded his head. He looked ready, but felt pretty far from it.

 

[UmbreonEevee]

August looked at Uraka's green eyes with a glare that she returned and was about to say something when Elijah had a sudden outburst which quieted her. She listened to Elijah and with a nod she sighed. "I've just been stressed about the matter at hand and the temptations of just letting my wolf take over and just letting go is taking its toll on me. I'm sorry for having you freak out but I don't like this at all, as you can tell," she said with a sigh with her arms still crossed as she looked at Elijah.

August bit her lip with clenched fists as the helicopter lowered down to the ground. She stepped out, looking at the other students who had made it alive. She unclenhed her fists and stood in awe at how little people there were left. A small growl escaped her throat when she found out she was assigned to the same team as Uraka but at least she knew Cain and Elijah would stop her from doing anything reckless. She nodded at the assignment then remembered that their principle is a demon, he could well be on the demons side and they would have no clue. And he was a powerful demon at that, she had been scared when she first met their principle and it showed just a bit in her eyes, though the principle had seemed amused to August, at least that's what it seemed. "Isn't the principle a demon? He smelt demon when I met him," she thought aloud, at hearing her mistakeshd covered her mouth and looked to the side. She was definitely ready and full of anger still but at least she would be able to take it out on the demons that she passed. She had her back up guns and her other Knight and Dragoon equipment but she still thought she was forgetting something.

Then she remembered, she forgot to take the pills to block out the calls. She looked behind her and with luck the were still there. She quickly grabbed the pills, stuffing them in her pocket.she looked at Elijah then Cain and thought that it would work, there was no doubt that the war would end and they would win. Newly poured hope was being spilled into August and she couldn't help but smile.

 

[DragonFlye]

There was a period of silence while they landed, but the tension seemed to thaw a bit afterwards, thankfully. Needless to say, it was a relief to step off of the craft and get his feet on the solid ground.

There was, in fact, quite the group of survivors gathered behind the Academy. It was nothing like True Cross's full force, and an overwhelming number of them were wounded, but it was better than he'd been expecting. However, he had to remind himself that not everyone gathered here was trustworthy at all. It was a grim situation, really; not knowing if those one was supposed to fight with or take orders from were actually on their side. On the other hand, it looked like they'd salvaged a bit of supplies, as well. Not only were food packages and such gathered, but also what weapons and ammunition could be rescued.

Regardless, he paid close attention to the instructions that were given, and was skeptical at the Dean's choice in squads. It made sense from the surface; their squad held Exorcists of every Meister and had experience with each other, but it wouldn't be a stretch to say that their personalities clashed.

Cain vaguely heard August say something about the principle, but before he could inquire further, the huddle of people began to break up into their individual squads, creating a murmur throughout the crowd that made it a bit difficult for him to hear. Exorcists began checking their weapons to ensure preparation for the mission. Supplies were limited, but sure enough, Senior Exorcists were helping to sharpen swords, redraw summoning circles, refill magazines, and so on. Cain allowed someone that he only distantly knew to refill his handgun with new silver bullets, and his med kit with fresh bandages. He looked to his Squad. "Everything alright?" He asked, genuinely interested. "I'm ready when you guys are."

 

[UmbreonEevee]

August looked for people to ask for holy water and more silver bullets when she saw Cain get more silver bullets and bandages from a Senior Exorcist. She headed over to him and asked for more bullets and holy water cans, placing the extra bullets and the holy water cans on her belt. She walked back to the Squad, looking at Elijah, Cain, and Uraka. "Everything's fine, for now. And I'm ready, are you both ready?" She asked Elijah and Uraka after she checked for all her weapons. Her secret knife was still in her combat boots, her katana sheathed, her holy water, her extra bullets, her cross bow, and her hand guns. She touched her cross that was always on her forearm, taking it off and putting it in her pocket.

August looked at the ground, thinking about the war. Her demon was itching to fight but she held it down. Her choker seemed to be a collar, seemingly making her tame. She sighed as she went over the professors that had turned demon, mostly all of them, and how many she had killed. She couldn't remember how many had died but at least the demons were gone and had been put back in Gehenna.