The room began to return to it's normal temperature after the ghost vanished. Still Alice felt as if she had been locked in a freezer for the past few minutes. Realizing she had been holding her breath the girl coughed hoarsely before exiting the room. The warm air felt great, but she had yet to stop shivering and the numbness was taking it's time leaving. Right outside the door Logan seemed to be waiting patiently. With a bit of luck the boy wouldn't inquire about the frost in her hair.

"Di-did you run into any trouble?" She asked. "Also I would ap-pr-preciate it if you'd point me in the direction of the others..." As soon as the words left her mouth, a large party of students appeared, with a poltergeist of all things leading them. "What exactly is happening h-here?" She asked the others, pretty shocked at their choice to trust a particularly underhanded type of spirit.

He found senior Pearson on the next floor as she stepped out of a room, a slight chill about her. She of course was not concerned about her particular appearance at the moment but the fact that he was following a poltergeist with his team in tow.

"Our area is clear and make no mistake, we just happen to be heading in the same direction as Mrs. Jameson here," he motioned towards the poltergeist before the sight of frost in her hair was too much for him to bear, "There also seems to be some frost in your hair, would you like me to brush it off for you?"

"You... cleared the floor already? I must've been gone longer than I thought. I'm sorry." She was lucky nothing major had happened to the fledgling exorcists. "Don't mind the hair..." She began, trying to brush the frost out. A surprisingly large amount of the stuff plopped onto the floor.

Stifling an embarrassed laugh she grinned at Adi. "I can't really criticize your decision after making an a** of myself just now, can I? We'd might as well be off then. Pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Jameson." Luckily Phora seemed to have vanished by her own will, because the mouthy creature would've probably made the same 'betray us and i'll gut you' speech that Alice was trying to resist voicing.

With his hands covering his mouth in an non shocking expression, Johnathan stayed silent throughout the walk. With their steps echoing as they walked, he quietly soaked in bits and tibits of information. It was definitely something new. Of course you have the good and the bad, just like in humans, but that doesn't mean all of them deserve a painful leave from this world, if not twice. But there will come times when they have no choice but to fight them. He shook his head quickly to relieve him of that thought. When the time comes, he'll know what to do. Hopefully. Soon they reached the main hall where Adi was waiting.

"You three, fall in, we're moving up."

Johnathan nodded slightly, excited at the thought of fighting more ghosts. He turned slightly as he saw a woman in a black dress. He lowered his eyelids a bit as his eyebrows followed suit. She wasn't here when the group came in. Adi wasn't attacking her either. Either Miss Rachel hired an aid at the last minute, or this was another powerful type of ghost. Her presence didn't give much either, it was just...displeased. But the ghost wasn't attacking, neither was Adi, so Johnathan had to try his best to act the same.

On the next floor, the party found Alice, who looked like she just came back from Antartica. While Alice and Adi were chatting, Johnathan, who was drumming his fingers on his side, couldn't help but wonder why the heck they weren't fighing that ghost, who apparently was named, Mrs. Jamerson. Still, she looked powerful, so he would have to keep his composure until the end.

OOC: Gonna speed things up.

The poltergeist seemed to not care what the children thought of her as she walked through the hall. She glanced in Alice's direction once to acknowledge the girl, and then continued to walk down the hall. She occasionally knocked on the doors as she passed, and nodded to herself pleased. "Well it seems you children have worth after all" she stated in disbelief.

She led the children up another flight of stairs, or rather, she floated up to the next level expecting the children to follow. The next floor seemed as empty as the two before that had been purged by the spirits. "How odd," murmured the poltergeist to herself "I was sure this floor had been teeming with vermin much earlier." The air seemed tense, as though lightning was about to strike, and the air smelled of fire, though there was none to be found. Wisps of black mist floated away from Mrs. Jameson's body as she looked around clearly disturbed.

"It seems as though more of your kind have been through here" she stated having come to a conclusion. One wasn't quite sure what she meant by that statement, more living beings? more humans? more of the omnivident? Miss Rachel? The entire area seemed purged clean, as if any sign of presence, human or otherwise had been expunged from the floor. "Very well" she said "Onto the next floor" and she led them up the next flight of stairs. As soon as they reached the top step, they all were hit by a wave of some sort of energy. Adi, Li, and Evelyn, being the most sensitive to spiritual matters, intuitively picked up on the malevolent signature of the energy. Alice and Basil, being seasoned veterans knew instinctively that it was trouble.

"What is the meaning of this?!" exclaimed Mrs. Jameson, "My home! I had this place built before the Academy was built! Yet you desecrate it?!" she turned to the children "GET OUT!!" she screamed, her face beginning to melt and lose form and the ground beneath their feet rumbling "GET OUT!!!" she screamed once again, as black mist began to pour through every nook and cranny in the hall consuming her being. "GET OUUUTTTT" A vortex of black mist spun in the middle of the room as lights flickered overhead and a wind began to blow through the hall, until eventually all was quiet. However the presence of evil continued to linger.

At the end of the hall a door closed.

_____________________________________

Evelyn, having dealt with many spirits throughout her youth, normally wouldn't have been moved by the occurrence, but she had never felt such evil in her life. She felt like a young child, and looked up to her seniors for some sort of direction.

Mrs. Jameson dissolved before his eyes, her last words were for them to run. Ultimately it was useless as the door slammed shut behind them and from the presence he felt, Adi bet it wasn't going to open easily. Even as a group he didn't think they should be facing something of this magnitude. He prepared for combat, shutting out everything else save for the commands given by his seniors.

ooc: tired as hell this is the best i could come up with

Something seemed to change in the air almost imperceptibly. Alice knew this feeling well; it was that basic animal instinct, drilled into every living creature across millions of years. The experienced exorcist had learned to never question this feeling, having been saved by it numerous times. Generally this meant something big and evil was heading towards her. A demon? A lich?

A door shut itself, startling her out of her paralysis. Naturally she assumed the source of this feeling was behind that door. Whatever it was appeared able to eradicate a poltergeist practically instantaneously. 'We don't stand a chance' was the obvious conclusion. Fear crept it's way back into her mind and quickly became suffocating. Yet, somewhere deep in all that fear was a tiny sliver of excitement. What would she find on the other side of that door? What could possibly rip a poltergeist apart without even touching it? She desperately focused on that feeling, grasping hold of it and making it grow.

The sensation of terror and anticipation was a volatile - and thrilling - combination, causing her hand to tremble as she reached out with her right arm. "Ad Amar!" Her bow appeared inconspicuously.
Looking at the other students she noticed Evelyn making a face like a scared puppy. The poor girl was probably feeling the brunt of what Alice's meager perception could only trace. "Do you feel that?" She said to Evelyn, her voice wavering noticeably. Clearly she should've made a pep talk before thinking about the situation at hand, because now she was simply too overwhelmed. Pointing towards the door, the adrenaline-buzzed senior just went with a blunt approach. "I don't know what's going on, but... I-it's coming from that room. I'm going to open the door! Anybody who's not willing to die has no place being here when it happens."

"Now this... This is more like it." Maximillian uttered to himself as his eyes scanned around the expressions of the startled group. Whatever was ahead of them had the group completely terrified, this certainly wasn't routine. Rising from his position near the back of the group Maximillian inched forward to obtain a better idea of what exactly was producing such a terrible vibe. This was after all what he had been waiting for this whole time, a chance to see the group handle a true life and death experience.

Everything went silent around the group after Mrs. Jameson left, although Li could tell she didn't actually leave. The silence was broken when the door slammed behind them. Alice summoned her bow and told the group she was going to open the door. Li thought this was a little bit rash so he interjected.

"Wait, before you do that, take this," Li said as he started creating a small ward. A green heatless flame started to appear in Li's hand, which he proceeded to hand to Alice. "It won't protect from anything too major, but it should stop any immediate attack, giving you time to react".

With that, Li backed off and summoned his tonfa, ready to fight.

The events that were unfolding before Logan were startling to say the least. Whatever the black mist was had consumed the poltergeist almost instantaneously. Of course, now was no time to be backing down. Besides, Miss Rachel was facing far worse on the thirteenth floor. Of course, what they were about to face was no run-of-the-mill ghost. Logan summoned up his gear, and covered himself with holy water like some kind of ghost repellent. He muttered a silent prayer.
"If ah die here today..." He said once he had finished. "Oh, who am ah kiddin'. Whatever's behind tha' door is history. Who else wants some holy water?"

Just as Alice was steeling herself to open the door, Li stopped her.
"Wait, before you do that, take this," The junior said as a small green flame began to materialize in his hand. A ward? "It won't protect from anything too major, but it should stop any immediate attack, giving you time to react".
She smiled warmly at him, taken aback by the gesture. "Thank you very much! I'll be sure to put it to good use." The girl said, examining the bizarre heatless fire with a look of fascination. Small things like this worked wonders to ease her nerves.

A quick sweep of the room revealed that nobody had run away. Was that a good or bad thing? There was only one way to find out. Taking a deep breath, she grabbed the handle and pushed the door open, then cautiously peeked inside.
"...Huh?" Was all she could say, unsure of what to even think about the spectacle before her eyes.

A woman with wavy blonde hair wearing a tight red dress sat at a large oak desk in the middle of the empty room. Her ruby red nails clacked as she rapidly typed up a storm on a laptop. Eventually she took notice of the girl who had opened the door and the group behind her. Her nose crinkled, as if she smelled something bad. She closed the lid of her laptop and raised her face to the children. Her eyes glowed crimson momentarily before she sighed.

"Hmm..." she stated casually "There are more of you, but you're so young," she smiled revealing her fanged teeth and then she laughed "Just like the ones who were killed in that explosion. I bet they were your friends...ohhhh how they screamed that day. Didn't even see it coming. Mr. Albright was helpless, he let them down. All of them. Even you bunch here." She reclined in the office chair she was sitting in and began to file her nails while putting her feet up on the desk. "Your babysitter upstairs is tough but she won't last much longer, so let me give you some advice. I'm a baby killer, not a pubescent child killer, so why don't you run along and try not to get yourselves killed. Open a lemonade stand or something."

_______________________________

Evelyn was oddly bolstered by what Alice said. Yes, she was afraid, but no, she had a job to do. Her family had been trained for generations to do this. For centuries they had slain beasts and demons for the good of mankind, it was essentially what she had been born to do, and she wasn't about to let her first step into the deep end result in her drowning.

"I suggest you save the holy water" replied Evelyn evenly to Logan's kind gesture, "You may need it to use on whatever we're going to be going up against right now" and she watched as Li gave Alice a ward as she opened the door. The door must've had some sort of containment properties or something, but as it was opened, Evelyn had to step back as if she caught a bad smell in the air. The woman sitting at the desk was a demon.

"Demon" whispered Evelyn.

After drawing Arx onto himself, Johnathan began to understand the graveness of the situation. His eyes widened at the thought that he might not come back out alive. He quickly scanned the others where almost each one was dealing with the same thought, on different levels. But being scared certainly won't help him, it would only distract him. And he could tell all that focus would come in handy. What he felt was only the tip of the iceberg, however, because the looks from certain others were the most extreme. Still, the bit he felt was a bit too much for comfort. Finally, the door opened after what seemed like hours, even though it was only a few minutes, or probably less.

When the door opened, there was a woman in red with a laptop at a oak desk. From the way her eyes glowed, she expected a fight before seeing the group of kids. Johnathan's gaze turned horrific as the ghost rambled about that explosion. If she doesn't kill kids then what was she doing at the explosion? The way she talked about it, it seemed like she was right in front of the bus. He merely lowered his eyes and waited for one of the vets to respond.

Once the door had swung open and the creature tucked away in the room had made it's introduction Maximillian cautiously crept forward to secure a better look. Upon making his way to the front of the group Maximillian found that monster's presence and taunting was quite effective, so much in fact that the fear in the air was so thick it could have probably been sliced with a knife.

"So, are we going to kill it?" Maximillian inquired to his seniors, c*** his head slightly in the direction of the beast.

Adi had absolute control over himself. Absolute mastery over his emotions. He would not give in to her provocations. The grenade by his belt shouldn't be in his hand, tucked away and out of sight. His finger shouldn't be reaching for the pin and they stopped as he felt his finger around the cold metallic ring. He realised the others were most likely in the thrall of fear whereas he was more possessed with anger.