Logan was exhausted by the time the lunch bell rang. He had stayed up late the night before, not to mention all of the previous week, practicing what Adi had taught him in the Darren Archive Club's s****. He was beginning to see that his little dirk was more versatile than he had given it credit for, especially when it was paired up with a shield.
He had also been studying up on his creature compendium (or the ghostiary as he liked to call it). Adi had always said that to achieve victory, one must know one's enemies intimately. At least, that was something Logan could totally imagine Adi saying. Over all, it had been an exhausting week.
Even so, the junior was ecstatic when he received Miss Rachel's message. He wondered what manner of lectures and field trips would be inherent of a club that was formed to fight ghosts. Unable to wait to find out, he inhaled his lunch in a bid to get to the meeting room as quickly as possible.
After hastily downing his meal, Logan made for the Miss Rachel's room as fast as he could without running. When he arrived though, someone had already beaten him there. The junior thought a bit to late that perhaps he would have arrived sooner if he hadn't had seconds.

Unlike many of the students, aside from a few flight training sessions, Evelyn had spent more of her time exploring the s****, particularly the library, rather than training her abilities. Most of the things they were being taught presently were things she had learned long ago, it was one of the few benefits of having been raised in a home where spirits and the like were a common fact of life that one needed to be prepared for.

Classes eventually started, and she met the rest of her non-omnivident peers, as well as the teachers. She wondered how much all the teachers knew. She thought for sure that the Headmaster of the school had to be aware, as there was a rather large s**** built beneath his school. All the other first years in the club were in her classes, however rather than sit with any of them she chose to remain off by herself, as she usually did.

When she received the message, Evelyn solely had time to grab a pre-prepared Caesar salad wrap and she walked at a quick pace towards the Darren Archive Club meeting room. The door was open, meaning that Sir William was somewhere in the room, if she cared to try hard enough she would've been able to sense his whereabouts while he was invisible. Instead she simply entered the room and sat down in the room a few seats from Logan, whom she acknowledged with a curt nod.

After reading the message from Miss Rachel, Alice couldn't focus for the rest of the day. The first mission of the year - not only that, but the first since the bus incident too. Could she really lead this ragtag group of freshmen on an exorcism? A suffocating sense of foreboding hung over her, but she knew there was no other option, lest Basil's questionable work ethic kick in again and the new members get abandoned in a forest or something. That horrific thought renewed her determination completely, and she quickly ate a carb-heavy lunch of pasta and bread for energy then set off to her room to change.

Having exchanged her uniform for a loose blazer and track pants, the senior took a deep breath and tried to think positively. "I was chosen for this because there were no better options. I have to live up to their expectations!"
Self motivation was not her schtick.

Instead, she simply crammed her doubts into the back of her mind once again and jogged to the club room, ignoring the stares of the boys who wished to admire the rare spectacle of a female running. The girl arrived to find several freshmen waiting.

"Hello Johnathan," she said politely. "I take it you haven't had any trouble with those sigils? I'm willing to lend a hand, you know." Out of the corner of her eye she noticed the boy who witnessed last week's "outburst". Somehow she didn't expect him to have much confidence in her. Besides these two, the only other person in the room was the brown-haired girl, Evelyn. Her family had a long history of famous demon slayers, so of course Miss Rachel would see fit to ensure Alice knew about this "special asset". However she seemed to remember the girl being distinctly uncooperative during their training session.
Acknowledging the others, she took a seat towards the front and tried to calm her nerves by socializing lightly while waiting for the remainder of the group to show up.

Monday signalled the start of the grind for Adi, but since his today was the first day he could spend most of his time playing the martial arts version of chess in his head. It was the same old teachers he already knew of so there wasn't much the 3rd years were doing today, even after the morning assembly. In fact, they were let out early for lunch by about five minutes. He had half a mind to finish some personal business but by the time he had walked out of the class, the familiar jingle from the school's PDA alerted him to an incoming message. Popping it out of his pants, he read the message.

Another mission.

It seems lunch would have to wait, though he did grab a rare snack earlier this morning so that wasn't a problem. The club room was ofcourse now full of people who had arrived before he did. It wasn't all of them, he had yet to spot senior Petran, but he returned any greetings that were levied upon with a silent and shallow nod. Taking a seat next to senior Pearson, he tried to passed the time with a stony faced silence.

The start of regular classes was nothing new for Li. Like always, he was on top of his class for the first few assignments. Li quickly clicked into the cycle of school, having little time to interact with many of the new students. Most of his time was spent studying already within the first week. Also without a proper dojo established yet, Li spent most of his time brushing up on Tai Chi in the s**** of the school.

The assembly was uneventful, as it was the same speech they had every year for the first years. As Li was walking towards the cafeteria to grab some lunch, he noticed quite a number of familiar faces, particularly Johnathan, the boy whom him and Alice helped discover his arte on the first day. By the time he entered, the PDA beeped with a familiar sound. Li read the message in his head. It was time for the first mission under the disguise of a field trip. Li was feeling a bit uneasy after the bus accident but quickly overcame this feeling. He grabbed a sandwich, dropped a pile of change at the register and made his way to the Darren Archive Club room.

To his surprise, Li was one of the last few to arrive. Looking around, he recognized all the faces, Johnathan, Logan, Evelyn, Alice, and Adi. He gave a nod to the group of them in the room, then made his way next to Adi. Li sat down in the seat beside him in hopes to start a conversation.

"First mission, although I wonder who this guest speaker is," Li whispered to Adi.

​It was a hagard, ill-rested August Krol that walked the hallways leading to the Darren Archive club room that Monday afternoon. After the incident of the previous weekend, the youth had been forced to reevaluate his entire worldview. Admittedly, the feeling of a dancing flame as an extension of himself was an exhilarating one. Addictive, even. Such power, and it was his but for practice and refinement. August had spent the better part of Sunday acquainting himself with these new-found abilities, and already he could influence the movement and intensity of the small fire emanating from his lighter. It was amazing. Disillusionement came, however, in the form of a tome from the Darren Archive library.

On a whim, August had picked up the book Sunday evening on his way out of the s**** facilities after a brief self-guided tour of the place. He started reading that night, and the pages kept turning until dawn. Ghosts. The word made him want to spit. Disgusting creatures that existed outside reality as he had known it for fifteen years. The very thought of it made his insides squirm. And now, here he was, on his way to the ghost club to do who knows what. 

August had fully intended to skip the first day of class to make up for his lost sleep. When the message from Miss Rachel roused him from his late morning slumber, however, it was evident that any further rest was out of the question. That woman had a bizar air of authority, and it was likely best to avoid opposing her at this stage. So it was that August entered the club room and made his way to a solitary seat in the corner, avoiding any interaction with the group that had already arrived.

Li came in late, no doubt doing extra credit work, and was apparently in a chatty mood as he approached with his sandwich in hand.

"First mission, although I wonder who this guest speaker is," he was whispered to.

"As long as it is not one of those spirit mediums that bleed out of their orifices. It's rather hard to clean up after them, don't you think? Lets hope the juniors aren't squeamish."

Autumn, Monday 12:10

Miss Rachel entered the room with two people in tow, the first was an elderly minister who seemed to have aged well. He still had all his hair on his head, and had bushy eyebrows, all as white as snow. He wore a brown overcoat that covered his ministerial garb of black with the token white collar and he wore a silver crucifix. To the senior members, and the pious, they would know the man as Father Albright, the gran-uncle of James Albright. Father Albright communicated with the club regularly sharing with the club of any unholy disturbances he had heard, or his congregation had witnessed. While he was not Omnivident, therefore lacking the abilities that came with the gift, he could still see various spiritual phenomena. It is commonly referred to a being "Touched", an individual who has had an interaction with a spirit, or creature and as a result their eyes were opened in a manner similar to those with the gift of the Omnivident, leaving a peephole into the realm of the unseen.

The other was a boy, who wore the school uniform, who had piercing grey-green eyes and wore a blue headband on his head. She led the two to the front of the room, and walked back to the door closing it shut and whispered to the door, "None shall enter" before turning back to the classroom.

"Hello everyone!" she said in a cheery, though businesslike manner "Today I would like to introduce you to a new member, Maximilian Hadrianus-Julius Veres. He has recently just transferred to the school and I know you will all make him feel welcomed. Go on, you can sit over there" She said, while indicating to one of the vacant seats in the room. She then turned to the priest who stood patiently with his hands folded in front of him. "And for the newer members, allow me to introduce Father Albright"

"Ah, hello children" spoke the old priest gently "I am blessed to see so many shining faces in this room despite the enemy's attempt to extinguish the light of this city." He closed his eyes momentarily and signed for the father, son, and holy spirit in a quick silent prayer in memory of the past students and his nephew. "However, before we have the chance to strike back, we must make sure that you are prepared for battle, so we shall start off small. There is an apartment complex on Ericson street, a few of the members of my congregation have been complaining of odd happenings in various apartments. Relatively minor things, such as the feeling of being watched, items being misplaced, and the odd bump in the night. I believe the building has become haunted with the increase of supernatural activity as of late."

Miss Rachel shot him a cautionary glance that seemed to say "be careful".

"Normally, I'd cleanse the house myself, but I have been extremely busy as of late, and Miss Dawn here seems that this minor cleansing would be a great chance for you to use your abilities." Father Albright turned to Miss Rachel signalling that he had said all that he had to say.

"Very well" stated Miss Rachel getting up from her desk "Sir William, the bookshelf if you please" There was a click and the bookshelf slid out of place leading to the s****, and Miss Rachel head down the flight of stairs. "Come along to the weapon vault" she called from the stairs.

Basil entered the room after the speaker finished talking to the members. He ignored any looks he received walking in, especially any from Rachel, who he was beginning to despise. He was an observer and the guidelines did not pertain to him. She was in no position to force him to act otherwise.

Another person he disliked was Abright, who he had just realized was the speaker. Basil grimaced as he saw Abright, but stood where he was to avoid any confrontation at the moment.

"Well I guess we shall find out," Li replied as he turned his stare towards the door. Ms. Rachel entered with two others, one the familiar Father Albright and the other was a newcomer. The young man was introduced as a new member, Maximilian Hadrianus-Julius Veres. He was a transfer student from what Ms. Rachel said about him. From the look in his eyes, Li could tell he was already experienced with spirits and being Omnivident.

Listening to Father Albright was nothing new to Li. He has heard from him before in his earlier years. Father Albright after introducing himself introduced the "mission", if you could call it that. It was nothing more than a sweep of an apartment building, nothing too fancy. Never the less, Li knew it was many of his peer's first's time dealing with spirits head on.

"Starting off simple," Li whispered to Adi, "There's no way we can mess this up, right?", he said in a playful tone, almost expecting something to go wrong as he got up.

"Thanks Alice, I'll keep that in mind." Johnathan replied to the senior. Johnathan then got up and started to head towards the stairs. Maybe Miss Rachel was already teaching him how to use a weapon. Or maybe she would just give everyone a weapon for the "field trip" about to take place. Johnathan noticed Carter wasn't here. He remembered what that new kid said, "None shall enter" Maybe he missed it. To compromise for it, Johnathan would tell him about what took place, unless somehow he makes his way here, if it would help....if he came back in one piece. Johnathan shook his head at the thought. Miss Rachel wouldn't give them something hard on the first try right? Johnathan was thinking about this too much. All he could just do was wait as they proceeded down the stairs.

Fortunately for Adi, the guest speaker was the foggy old man from the church and relative to the late James Albright. The late transfer student however was a surprise though. He'll have to find a place for him. As the priest talked about the recent going on, Adi's mind started to formulate a plan of attack. He didn't want a simple sweep job to end up like that movie about a SWAT raid he saw recently. Li however, had a tendency to say some of the most unnecessary of things.

"Starting off simple," Li whispered to Adi, "There's no way we can mess this up, right?"

"Who knows what could happen. You know that exorcism is not my ability so the most I can do is guard the back door so long as no one is in mortal danger."

This was true and unless senior Pearson or Doctor Dawn had any special assignments for him, Adi couldn't see himself doing anything else.

After Carter was done reading about ghosts, Carter saw the time, and ran to Ms.Rachel's class, but the door seemed... Very, very respulsing. He tried to grab for it, but his hand smacked him in the face. He looked arond for another way in, not a window or door in sight.Could this be an evil spirit? Carter grabbed onto his crystal he closed his eyes and with a loud shout he said, "Distillation!" he put down his crystal, letting it get back what power it lost, he reached for the door...

The door remained shut, completely unmoved by the abilities displayed by the young man. However, before he could make another attempt to open the door, Sir William appeared beside the door. His lance was lowered offensively and the front of his helmet was closed. Upon seeing the youth, the front of the helmet slid up revealing the ghostly white amused face of the old knight.

"Ah, young master Gram" spoke the knight with relief "I thought that it was some ruffian attempting to break into the club for nefarious purposes. Unfortunately I cannot open the door, Lady Dawn has sealed the door shut with her powers. I suggest entering the s**** through her office down the hall. Do try to be on time next time, young man." And with that the ghost disappeared.

___________________________________

Evelyn eyed the boy who had entered the room. Even though she didn't know who he was, his last name tipped her off that his family belonged to old money, centuries worth of wealth and power lasting to the present day, very similar to her own. However she didn't have time to dwell on the new student, the Father, had given them their first mission, a quick sweep of an apartment that had recently become haunted. She was curious about the increase of supernatural activity that he briefly mentioned, but he spoke no more of it. His last words said, Sir William opened the staircase to the s**** and she followed the woman, eager to select a weapon from the weapon vault.

Carter, who wanted to thank the ghost, just vanished, so, Carter taking William's advice ran to Ms.Dawn's office, "Heh. I was so caught up with reading, I forgot about the trip! And now the door is shut, from your doing, I suppose, so, anything you'd like to do with me?"