Id laid on the ground for a moment the taste of blood mixed with dirt was a taste she was used to. Id raised herself onto all fours, as she did pain shot threw her back and chest. The pain resulted in her coughing up some blood and holding her chest. The pain in her back was bearable but her chest caused pain she had to focus on hiding. She rolled over to a sitting position. She noticed her comrades arriving. "It's about time you slow pokes, You could've been here like 30 seconds ago before he tried to kill me?!? Luckily He's not good at that. Jeez I mean seriously Is it really that hard to kill a human?!?" She said all this holding her side and wincing whenever she raised her voice. Id reached into her pocket with a huff. She wanted some s'mores. When she pulled out her gram crackers where smashed into tiny bits...Id began to get filled with anger "WHAT IS IT WITH BLACK GUYS AND NOT LIKING CRACKERS?!?" she yelled throwing the bag of crumbs at the back of Dom's head. "WOULD IT KILL YOU-" She was cut off as she began to cough up more blood. "Ah screw it...You guys got him right?"


Lotus arrived on the scene and began to watch a fight unfold. After Id made her scene. Lotus began to yell back "If you would like we can come back in 5 minutes!"

Id chuckled at Lotus "YOU SHOULD. IT MIGHT BE ENOUGH TIME FOR THIS THING TO ACTUALLY DO SOMETHING, INSTEAD OF BOAST ABOUT DEMONS!" She coughed up some more blood.

Lotus looked at the girl either she is really brave or incredibly stupid Lotus shifted her gaxe back to the monster at hand. We need to deal with him before he kills her. One quick strike should do it. Lotus drew her blade and dashed for a wide strike at all the chains, even if she missed it would hopefully get the demon's attention.

OOC: To help clarify my jumping, and preserve plot suspense I've labeled the groups for now lol

Team 1 – Alice, Basil, Adi, Li, Lloyd; Team 2 – Logan, Evelyn, Lotus, Daniel, Id; Team 3 – Maximilian, Johnny, Miss Rachel, Ms. Shields; Team 4 – Tsubaki, Derrek, Damian, Fiona


Team 1

Basil rolled his eyes as he watched the scene unfold before him. Was Adi actually going to do what he thought he was about to do? He crossed his arms as Li and Alice prepared themselves to protect Adi from the possessed boy's assault, Alice with her enchanted shield and Li in a limber fighting stance. Just as August released a powerful wave of fire towards the group, Lloyd and Grayson swooped down, the gryphon releasing its own flames that consumed the fires of August.

Meanwhile Adi sat on the ground cross-legged with Alice's crossbow bolts resting in his laps. He sighed to himself, and shrugged his shoulders. He knew that the more time he wasted, he put his colleagues into greater danger.

"Umm...hello allegedly primordial entity who seems to be the source of angelic energy," began Adi awkwardly. "I have also been" he hesitated "blessed, with this energy. I have been told that because of this blessing, I am to have a more established relationship with you and your kind. Well, here I am. Great..." he paused, unsure of how to continue, "Well, now that we're acquainted, I'd like to ask you for a favour. We're stuck here in some sort of dimension facing your eternal (or something) enemies. I'd greatly appreciate it if you could bestow some of your power into these bolts here so that we can defeat it....um...thanks?"

Adi blinked at the bolts in his lap waiting for something to happen.

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Team 2

The trees groaned as they began to move with life. Commanded by Daniel's spell, they began to crawl across the ground and coiled around Dom's legs as he struggled to free himself. Logan's assault was quick, causing the demon to roar in anger, and annoyance at the assault. While Evelyn flew back and forth like an insect, pelting the demon with her wisps. Meanwhile, Lotus had successfully struck the chains, causing little damage to the wicked bonds. Their attacks were swift, and came at many different angles, making it difficult for the demon to choose whom to strike or focus its attention.

As the crackers struck the back of Dom's head however, it seemed to irk the demon quite profoundly. Dom's head, which had hung slack while the roots anchored him to the ground, suddenly snapped up and c*** itself sideways.

"ENOUGH!" yelled Dom at the same moment that the demon roared. The wind suddenly began to pick up as Dominic pulled at the roots of the trees which bound him. The trees creaked as the wind pushed them all away, literally ripping the roots from the ground and tossing them into a powerful cyclone that had formed around the boy. It was so great, that no one on the ground could dare to approach it without being sucked in and thrown to their demise. Further disturbing, was that the demon was no longer in their sight.

"Logan, catch!" yelled Evelyn from the air as she tossed her crucifix into the air behind her, "When you see the signal, begin the exorcism!" Her last words said, she flew directly into the cyclone.

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Team 3

Maximilian's quick thinking stopped many of the grounded imps in their tracks, while Johnny successfully took down any of the imps that flew too close to Miss Rachel as she approached the stage. Suddenly she stopped, mid-run, her eyes lit up as if she had suddenly realized something.

"The windows!" she exclaimed "Of course, the windows!" Miss Rachel's babbling made no sense to the rest of the room, nor did her next action. The woman leapt over the stage, looking down and revealing that the entire stage was a giant mouth. The DJ, always seemingly untroubled by anything that was going on inside the room, was a tongue of some sort, a lure. Had they climbed onto the stage, they would have all perished.

"Do not approach the stage!" she yelled.

Curling into a flip she stuck her legs out and smashed her feet through one of the three great windows of the ballroom. Time seemed to slow as the glass fell around them, and the sudden sharp and cold winter air blew through the room. She grunted as she rolled onto the ground in the courtyard and looked back at what she had done.

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Team 4

"Thank you" croaked Fiona "I didn't think I would make it...I thought...I thought..." her eyes began to tear up. In the moment of silence that shortly followed, Tsubaki, Damian, Derrek and Fiona could hear the sound of music thumping. It almost sounded like what they were dancing to at the Winter Ball, but much more sinister. Before they could investigate it any further however, a sudden and very dense fog began to coalesce around the group, and a cool breeze blew about them. The air smelled different, fresh almost, and then the fog was suddenly gone.

The group suddenly found themselves in the court yard of the city hall.

"You're back!" yelled Miss Rachel from behind them "Oh thank god, you're back!"

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Team 2

Evelyn crossed her arms in front of her face as she flew directly through the cyclone, her eyes glowing brilliantly as she flew through the wind and debris. Stray branches battered her and the wind threatened to draw the very breath from her lungs, but she eventually breached the walls of wind and found Dominic floating almost lifeless in the middle of the cyclone. Without stopping, she flew directly into the boy's back and the two of them tumbled to the ground stirring more dirt and debris.

The wind continued to swirl violently around the two children, a roaring heard in the distance as Evelyn took note of an approaching shadow and the jingling of chains. She looked down at Dom with a sincere pitying expression and laid him down on his back. Standing up confidently, she stood in front of the boy as the demon approached. Wisps glowed about her, floating in the air in a spiral around the girl as she raised her right hand towards the approaching shadow.

"Alright soul of light," said Evelyn between gritted teeth as the wind grew stronger "Time to try something new" Just as the demon stuck its head through the wall of wind, Evelyn opened her palm revealing a single wisp. There was a brilliant flash of light followed by a magnificent beam of energy that shot forth from her hand, shooting directly at the demon. It howled in pain as the light struck its face, though Evelyn wasn't done. She took to the air and opened her palms again, this time firing at the chains that were connected to Dominic. Again, there was a brilliant flash of light and then a powerful beam was released, destroying the chains.

Turning to face the demon, which had since recovered from her initial blast. Evelyn hovered in the air as the wind was beginning to die down, for the demon's control over Dom had ceased.

"I am sick and tired of you demons" yelled Evelyn, her eyes emitting brilliant light "You took Carter, but I will never let you take anyone again!" She opened both of her palms and a significantly large blast of light energy was released in a powerful beam. It shot directly through the demon and pierced through the wall of wind and debris, making a fantastic flash of light in the vicinity around the group.

"NOW LOGAN!" she yelled.

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Team 1

Adi looked up, suddenly sensing a change in the atmosphere. He had no chance to inquire about it further, for he realized that the crossbow bolts in his lap had begun to glow with holy energy. He was lost for words for a few seconds, before he quickly regained his senses and clutched them in his hands and stood to his feet.

"Senior Alice! The bolts are ready! Quickly, take them!" he yelled, "We must be wary, or we shall lose Junior August as we lost Junior Carter. The chains MUST be separated before we attempt to exorcise the demon, otherwise he shall suffer the same fate."

Basil, and Li prepared themselves for the final assault against the demon.

Evelyn was gone before Logan had a chance to protest. He looked down at the crucifix in his hands, anxiety painted across his face. As the girl confronted the demon, the sounds of conflict could faintly be heard above the swirling wind. As he waited for Evelyn’s signal, he hastily racked his brain.

Patris et fillus- no, that’s not it. Patris et… filii. Yeah, filii sounds right. Patris et filii, et spiritum sanct… no. Damn it! It was… Patris et filii, et spiritus sancti! And then-

“NOW LOGAN!”

Despite the roaring wind, Logan heard the signal clearly. His eyes widened. In a moment of panic he raised the crucifix above his head, shouting at the top of his lungs.

“Daniel!” He yelled, lobbing the cross in the direction of his classmate.

In silence, Damian maintained vigilance, hoping there would be no surprises at least until they could figure out what to do. He was quickly drawn out of his focused watch by Fiona's gratitude. Damian considered speaking, but opted to simply pat her shoulder lightly, trying to distract himself once again. He suspected he too might be stirred emotionally if he let his thoughts linger on this ordeal. When the music began to make itself heard, he froze, unsure if he was hallucinating or something worse was coming. The impending fog had Damian tense, ready to spring into action but above all shield his combat buddies and Fiona. He was not prepared to find himself in the courtyard. His gaze immediately turned to the sound of Miss Rachel's voice which brought a confused smile to the face. "We're back... How?"

"That music..." Derrek absently looked to the sky. "It's eerily similar to what we were dancing to at the ball."

"You weren't dancing at the ball." Derrek's behavior still hadn't started to make anymore sense to Tsubaki since his first day in the archive club, and by the confusion lacing her statement, one might guess it was starting to make less sense. She tensed as he suddenly turned and replied with a crushing retort.

"The only way you'd know I wasn't dancing is if you weren't either."

Tsubaki was still silently stammering as the fog sweep them to the courtyard. The change in scenery lucky allowed her to shift back to a working gear. They probably had enough rest she could throw up Arx to protect their wounded if needed, but she still wasn't in peak condition.

"Damian? Let's get these two behind Miss Shield's barrier, I'm sure she can fill us in."

Id stayed on the ground as she watched Lotus strike the chains "Great you're as useless as the demon." Id remarked as Lotus's sword bounced of the chains. As the tornado formed Idelia chuckled holding her side again "MINE WAS BETTER!" She yelled waving at the tornado. The pain in her side was beginning to really bother her now. "God Dammit!" she yelled as she coughed up more blood. She reached into her pocket and grabbed her flask her hand was shaking as she unscrewed the cap and drank some of the vodka within. She wanted to numb the pain so she drank until the thing was empty. She smiled as her throat burned. As the tornado died down she decided to yell again "I LASTED LONGER TOO!"

Lotus began to become furious at Id's remarks. She stood by Daniel. She needed to calm herself she looking away from the redhead, her eyes caught Daniel's. She couldn't do anything but stare at him. Something about staring into his eyes made her loose sense of everything around her. It was calming. She randomly caught his name. Out of the corner of her eye she saw an object flying at Daniel. Without hesitation she caught the object. After catching it she looked at the object expecting a rock but instead seeing a crucifix. She quickly extended her hand to Daniel. "I believe this is for you."

As long as I remain around these people I'll never lose this feeling of s****...

Maximilian let out a breath of relief as Miss Rachel came gracefully falling to the earth.

"Mind explaining what exactly is going on?" He looked towards Rachel for an immediate answer as he tried to piece together what exactly just happened for himself. "How did they end up here with us..." he motioned towards their 'freshly' arrived comrades. "...and why didn't the rest of them end up here?"

OOC: have absolutely no idea what to post >.> and its very short... oh well

Johnathan was lost as well. Was it an illusion? Or a gateway into another dimension? Where are the others? He also looked towards Miss Rachel.

Lloyd and Grayson both charged, with the intent of striking the chains. Lloyd with his swordstaff and Grayson with his talons.

Alice raised her arm and tried fusing with Sorbet, and it seemed to work. A glowing white light slowly enveloped her body, which began to change rapidly. Wings sprouted from her back, and her hands gained sharp talons. 'It's just like with Phora.' She said. 'Interesting.' She raised her hand palm-up and a column of ice sprouted between the demon and August, shattering the chains. With a whip of ice she grabbed the arrows and loaded them into her crossbow, and pulled the firing mechanism. The blessed bolts shot out of the crossbow with great speed and they struck the demon in several places. The demon howled and black smoke curled from it's body as a pair of gates appeared behind it and opened. Winds rushed and pulled the demon towards the fiery gates, even though it clawed and tried to crawl away. The winds picked up speed and drew the demon behind the gates, which then slammed shut and vanished. Alice caught her breath and looked towards her comrades. 'Amazing. Adi, these new powers are a great boon to us.'

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As Lotus and Daniel reached Idelia, the shape of the forest bent and twisted, shimmering like the mirage they were, until the pair were back with their original group. Daniel caught Lotus's eye and turned red. As she handed him the crucifix, he took a deep breath and shouted, "Patris et filii, et spiritus sancti. Revertere ad abyssum!" As he threw the crucifix at the demon.

Before Miss Rachel could answer, the ground began to tremble as the stage began to lift itself off of the ground. As she had noted earlier, the stage had merely been a lure and trap, the gaping mouth that had been held open slammed shut as the DJ – which was in fact the tongue of the creature – was sealed inside. It slowly raised itself on four reptilian legs, with a long barbed tail flicking about angrily. The stage was in fact a long snout for the dragon-like creature and two ruby red eyes with predatory slits for pupils glared down at the children. It blocked the students from approaching the two remaining bay windows that had not been smashed.

Despite the new creature that the group now faced, Miss Rachel seemed quite unfazed by its appearance. Rather, her eyes had regained their renowned look of simply "knowing". "Hurry children!" she said while ushering the group behind Ms. Shields. Just as she did this the creature roared loudly, the eerie dissonant beat still playing in the background. The creature turned its attention to the group and opened its mouth, a powerful blast of visible sound waves were loosed from its mouth like a cannon.

Reflexively, Ms. Shields raised both of her hands, as her eyes flashed white and a halo appeared over her head while white wings of energy unfolded from her back. The air hummed with power and angelic energy as a powerful energy field unfolded itself around the group, creating an impenetrable dome of energy.

"Now then," she said, while turning to the group. "Whatever it was that was hindering my abilities, has been stopped, and I have been restored to my full capacity. If I am to assume correctly, and I will, those of you who were at the ball were transported to a pocket dimension, much like the one that appeared in Johnny and Carter's room."

"The demons residing in the pocket dimension were supposed to destroy you, but fortunately you defeated it – I believe that is what may disturbed what has been hindering my own abilities. You broke one link in the long chain of darkness, allowing me to see enough to conclude that this entire property has fallen into a rift. While I did not know that breaking the windows would return a portion of you who have been trapped in the other realm, I did know that it would cause a tear in this demonic reality that the town hall has been subjected to. "

"Thus, in order to rescue your other colleagues, they too must also defeat the entities that have bound them, and once we break through the windows," she said while pointing to the two remaining bay windows "we will return them to our side. It is then that we will be able to exorcise this creature, for I believe that it is getting its power from the other dimension as well"

"I'm sorry you had to go through such a horrible experience" she said while crouching in front of Fiona, "You did not sign up for this, and this is exactly why you left the archive club to learn how to control your powers under Ms. Shields." Looking at Derrek, she smiled sadly; he was also in poor condition. "I need to reserve as much power as I can, so I cannot heal you both completely. I can however, stabilize your conditions, so that you do not bleed out." Miss Rachel stood up straight and placed one hand on Fiona and the other on Derrek, "Be well!" she commanded. Immediately their wounds were sealed and they felt a bit of their pain subside.

"You two, stay with Ms. Shields," she said pointing at the two she had recently healed "The rest of you, I know you're tired, but we have to distract this creature long enough to drive it away from the last two windows and recall your friends. Take any measures necessary, but don't put your lives at risk." Her orders given, she summoned her sword once more and walked through the force field to face the demon dragon.

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Once Daniel had finished speaking the exorcism, immediately the rusted gates materialized and a great wind began to wrench the demon backwards towards its hellish maw. In a fit of desperation, the demon screeched angrily while trying to snatch Evelyn, though its hands flew under the girl as she hovered in the air glaring down at the vile creature. She felt no remorse for it nor its kind. If anything, she only wished that they could be killed outright, instead of sealed away for an nondescript amount of time. The demon scrabbled at trees and stones that had been shifted throughout the battle, but the wind was much too powerful, and soon, it was sucked into the moaning void of the gates. They quickly slammed shut before vanishing in a flash of light.

Having completed the exorcism, Evelyn landed on the ground lightly and picked up the crucifix from the ground.

"You know," she said while rubbing her sleeve on the silver "You didn't have to throw it." Placing the crucifix back around her neck, she walked over to Dom's side and also turned to look at Id.

"They seem to be in rough shape," she said grimly, "We need to get out of this forest"

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Adi could not reply to Alice, for he had collapsed onto the ground moments before. Fortunately, Li had been right behind his peer to catch him as he fell. After closing his eyes for a few minutes, Li opened them once more with a sigh of relief.

"His spiritual reserves are exhausted, but he is fine" said Li softly. He turned his head in the direction of August, who too had collapsed to the ground as well. He was curled in a fetal position and unconscious. Basil stepped forward, having sit through the exorcism without so much as lifting a finger.

"Well," he said while crossing his arms "We got rid of the demon, but we're still stuck in this damned forest. What do we do now?"

Tsubaki was tired, but it was no time to be selfish and rest. If they didn't defeat this dragon, then the hard work they had put in against the demon would all be for naught, and she wouldn't let that happen. Before stepping back into the fray she gathered her hair and reset the bead that held it; she was almost ready.

In a low tone she addressed the general forces of darkness, "First you try to make my friends evil, and now you're trying to make music evil too? I just... Its like you're... aah, you're just really trying to piss me off aren't you!?" Turning so she caught most of the current group, she added for their benefit, "Sorry, for the harsh language."

She turned back to the dragon, and in an attempt to quell the noise it lost the right to call music, she called upon Lugare to bind it's maw. It was kind of poetic, she felt.

---

Derrek was tired, and it seemed only correct that he should be selfish and rest. Its not like he could really help if he wanted to anyways. Even keeping his eyes open at this point was difficult between using his transference power recently and his body trying to help recover from his wound. So he lay back before remembering sometime of utmost importance.

"Hey Fiona, you don't happen to have last Wednesday's math notes I can borrow when we get back to the dorms, do you?"

Daniel stared blankly at the spot where the demon had been. He looked at Lotus and grinned. "Heh, that was cool." He said. His initial reaction to Evelyn's comment was a look of apprehension, but managed to find words to say. "Do you think Alice will give me a pass for this?"

Phora stopped midflight, sensing the lack of demonic energy. "OH YEAH!" She said and disappeared, appearing again to Alice's left. Shocked at the signs of fusion, she dropped to the ground and landed in a sitting position. "I-I THOUGHT WHAT WE HAD WAS SPECIAL!" she shouted, teary-eyed.

Alice was giving Adi a worried stare when Phora appeared. "If you were where you were supposed to be, we might be fused right now."

Phora looked heartbroken, and the waterworks began. "I was... Bob Dylan... WAAAAAAAAAH-" She cried as she flew off into the forest.

Alice sighed as she ended the fusion. Sorbet's chyrstalline form materialized on Alice's right shoulder. "Everyone, on your feet. My totem is about to go rogue, and there`s a few students whose fate needs deciding."

Lotus jumped in the air as they defeated the demon "We did it." She ran over to Daniel "You did it." Without much thinking she quickly grabbed the boy's head and began to kiss him. Her hands rested on each side of his face pulling him up into the kiss. once she started she realized she may have been to rash. She began to ignore everything around her as she went with her gut and continued. She wouldn't stop until he pushed her away. She wanted to test her boundaries.

Id slowly stood up "I don't need your pity. I didn't take a hit and pass out like a little b****." Id walked over to the brunette, placed an arm around Evelynn. "I have to say though when you went all psycho it was kinda hot." Evelynn could smell the liquor on Idelia's breath. "That reminds me!" Id pushed Evelynn and trudged closer to Dom. "You owe me some crackers." She raised a foot to kick him but instead ended up collapsing onto of him. Whether it was due to her injuries or her vodka wasn't known. Id pushed herself up off Dom "Dude I'm not into that stuff." She stood again "Well everything turned out alright. I mean we could've been sucked into that portal to who-knows-where." As Id finished her sentence she could feel people shooting her daggers. "Did I say something wrong?"

"Dragon." Damian muttered, staring in shock, he was willing to dive into demons in battle but Miss Rachel wanted them to hold off a dragon. Atleast it was for the sake of reinforcements. He admired Tsubaki's bravery at confronting the monster, and laughed softly at the apology. Gathering his own courage, he stood, stepping out of the shield and walking a few yards to the side of Tsubaki and Miss Rachel, swiftly firing a bolt toward the dragon's head, having given some effort to perhaps hit one of its eyes.

If Johnathan wasn't in this particular situation, he would honestly find this pretty cool. Honestly, a dragon? A demon dragon, but still. But then again he saw a griffin, a pixie, been possessed, and saw actual hellhounds. In about 3 years from now when he would be an upperclassman, he most likely wouldn't be this excited. It was also good to have Miss Rachel back to her old self; it was kind of reassuring. Johnathan was also glad that Tsubaki was being courageous, and also, he felt something else. However, it was no time to sort anything out. Marked with Arx, he stepped out of the shield and fired off three fragor blasts towards the other eye that wasn't targeted by Damian and charged towards one of the creatures legs to hopefully disable it with his billhooks, and perhaps get to the windows as well. He was counting on his as well as Damian's combined attacks to distract it so he could reach.
___

"See?" Lloyd spoke to Grayson. "They didn't need my help at all. I would have just gotten in the way."

"We did prevent them from being burned to a crisp." Grayson rebutted.

"Nah, Alice had that shield thingy, she would have done it if we didn't step in."

"Regardless we are still stuck in this forest with no clear way out."

Lloyd looked just in time to see Phora running away. "Maybe we should try and find the others."

"In this forest? We already tried that and it didn't work."

"Well, I say we stand by our current policy of doing absolutely nothing. It worked with the demon." He looked towards Grayson. "And besides, we're both still at full strength." Before his totem got a chance to speak he added: "And it's not like we would have much say anyway at this point."