OOC: Sorry, I've been busy. I'll be able to post later tonight.

ooc: I shouldn't try to post at 2:30 in the morning

By the time the woman in the red dress was finished talking, Alice was boiling mad. She couldn't bear to hear the students she failed to protect being mocked.
"So, are we going to kill it?" Maximillain inquired.

"Kill her? Of course not!" She answered. "Have you heard how much she knows?" If it weren't for her anger-clouded mind, they would be taking the demons advice and going to get Miss Rachel, but instead she called forth Phora and nocked an arrow into her bow. "Let's just capture her and get to the bottom of everything now!" With a sharp whistle the arrow flew towards the demon's leg in an attempt to demobilize it.

"Ouch." replied the demon dully as the arrow flew into her leg. "You know, when all your friends died, it was nothing like that." she yanked the arrow out of her leg and walked towards the group menacingly with a dark expression of sadistic glee. "Sure, the bus exploded, but we made sure that they roasted for a bit," she laughed once, coldly "Oh yes, the scent of burning flesh," she sighed "Reminds me of home" She spun on her heels turning away from the group and began to walk in the direction she had come from.

"Angel boy, weren't you supposed to be on that trip?" she directed at Adi "What happened? Daddy wouldn't let you go? Oh no! Maybe you and your "friend" Li were too busy running away to save your friends....you sure there's nothing else going on that everyone needs to know?" she mocked "And now look at the remains of the so-called Arclight Academy Archive Club. It's nothing but a bunch of fresh-faced babies awaiting their impending doom." she turned and pointed at Johnny, and Carter.

"And you two listen here, young Lord Maximilian Hadrianus-Julius Veres and my dear Lady Evelyn Victoria St. Augustine," she said with an extravagantly exaggerated bow in their direction, "You think you're demon slayers? Ha. Your fore-fathers are rolling in their graves at the thought of such ...peons... representing such a grand legacy. It'd be much better if you were born without Omnividence really" she said with a dismissive flapping of her hand.

"Though speaking of legacies, young Logan's existence is a mere mockery of his ancestors. Can you wield that widdle shield? Don't hurt yourself now, or would you rather speak to us in that unintelligible English you so often like to employ?"

"And to top it off, there's Alice, the brave, and beautiful leader of this oh so very select group. I wonder, was it really the best idea to put someone in charge who can't even control their totem. That pint-sized midget with ugly bug wings? I guess all those blonde stereotypes are true. Not that there was any doubt, with you as an example. You're going to get them all killed."

"Really, there's only hope for little pyro-boy and the esteemed Basil. It'll only be a matter of time before the both of you choose the right side." she specifically turned to August and stared at him with an eerie smile and her eyes glowing like fire. "Did you know that those who had your powers were viewed as gods? Miss Rachel wants you to control your powers, when really, who can control nature? Especially fire. Fire brings destruction and chaos. I suggest you think twice about this whole "demon slaying" thing."

Logan listened to the exchange with mounting anger. This demoness dared to make light of the deaths of the students lost in the bus accident, then blatantly belittle the entire group to their faces. It took every bit of restraint the junior could muster not to charge screaming at the woman, shield raised. She threatened their teacher, dishonored the dead, and treated them as if they weren't even worthy to be opponents.
Suddenly, something inside of Logan gave way, releasing a flood rage and malice. He would send this demon back to hell or die trying.
"Condescending b****!" He roared, flinging his dirk, still coated in holy water, directly toward the woman's forehead.

That, the demon did not see coming. Even before the dirk hit her, the stray splashes of the holy water seared her, leaving rising steam and a loud hissing noise in the room, and then the dirk stuck itself into her head. The demon blinked once, in shock at what had happened and then she began to scream violently clawing at her head. The lights in the room began to flicker violently as she fell to the ground writhing in pain.

"You. Will. Pay for that!" she exclaimed in a multi-toned voice, though she continued to convulse violently on the ground.

The demon screeched while falling down to Logan's holy water which was surprisingly effective on the demon. After hearing what she said about Li and the group, Li stayed outwardly calm, but inside, Li was feeling regret for not being able to do anything about the explosion. This regret slowly turned into anger, but he was able to retain himself from acting rash. Li walked over to Adi and whispered to him.

"I have a plan. If you guys can fend her off long enough, I can attempt to create a bind strong enough to exorcise her."

Maximilian watched on with great s**** as the demon hissed about on the floor like some impudent brat. Even more amusing was the fact that demon thought to insult his family in an attempt to deter or demoralize him. Although it was true Maximilian held great esteem and pride within his family's name he was in no way afflicted by this sort of bad mouthing, though he was quite interested in how such a creature knew anything about his family. "Surely there's more than this to you. You can't act high and mighty then flounder about on the floor, it just makes the whole mocking part seem stupid."

((Blargh. This sounded so much better in my head.))

The lady was intimidating, August could grant her that. Perhaps not quite as scary as Miss Rachel, but intimidating nonetheless. He loved the way that she had systematically dismantled each student, accentuating their failures and putting them back in their place. An air of superiority that was truly remarkable. August was expecting a similar set of put downs regarding his inexperience, his lack of control over his powers, the whole nine yards. Instead, when it came his turn, the woman chose to... compliment him? Unexpected, to say the least. But what she said rang awfully close to the truth, at least to August’s ears. He was the best out of this sorry lot. Miss Rachel would do nothing but hold him back. Every time he felt the dancing heat of flame, he could feel the potential. He was powerful. This woman recognized that.

The freshman would have taken the devil up on her offer right then and there had it not been for the intervention of his red-headed classmate. Following a bellowing cry of anger, a dagger completed its swift flight and landed squarely in the beast’s forehead. What followed was a rather pathetic display. She writhed in pain, flailing her arms and cursing her attacker with empty threats. August was having a hard time believing that just moments ago, he had admired this... thing. How disappointing. The new boy, Maximilian if he recalled correctly, was quick to capitalize on the opportunity for a verbal counter-blow.
"Surely there's more than this to you,” he said. “You can't act high and mighty then flounder about on the floor, it just makes the whole mocking part seem stupid."
Eager to add his own brand of spite, August sauntered up to the agonizing woman, leaned low, and smiled.
“Guess I have no choice but to agree with old Maxi here, sweetheart,” he said. “I don’t think I could work with someone so... incompetent, as it were.”
He took a last breath from his dying cigarette and exhaled a large cloud of smoke in the monster’s face. “Besides, what makes you think you could control a force of nature?”, he smirked. “No deal.”

The demon was on a roll. That is, until an angry Logan pegged her in the face with his dirk. The holy water began to take effect, leaving the monster struggling helplessly. Alice tried to get a grip on her rage, knowing that emotions were a favorite toy and weapon of all demons. Besides, they had the upper hand now, and it would be a grave mistake to blow it by doing something rash.

"Nice work, Logan," She said while walking closer to the woman. Almost without thinking she propelled a second arrow towards the other leg. "You can dish it, demon, but you really can't take it. A speck of water and you're already a casualty. Did you know we have buckets of that stuff?" There was nothing more satisfying than getting payback for all those vicious remarks. Nocking yet another arrow, she aimed her bow towards the demon's face and lowered her voice.
"Now, tell us everything you know about what happened to that bus."

The demon struggled to compose herself as she was being taunted by the children, the steam from her wound had ceased sizzling, though she appeared to still be in pain.

"Ha!" she laughed once though it was immediately followed by a cough "Kill me." she simply stated. "Kill me. Kill me. KILL ME. KILLLLL MEEEEE," she then stopped suddenly with a sly smile on her face "Oh, but you can't, and never will. Though since you asked so nicely, I'll tell you what happened to the bus." she spat out a red liquid, that could possibly be blood onto the ground and breathed in deeply.

"Ah yes, the barbecue. Such a pleasant day. Well, the children allllll got on the bus, and then lastly Mr. Albright got on." she laughed "The dead fool didn't even see it coming. None of them did. And then....the bus went BOOM! Though one of the Lords decided to mess around with the bodies, let them cook up reallllll nice and slow. Ah, the screaming, the flesh, the tears. The sweet regret could be felt for miles around, oh and the pain. I'll have you know they did not die peacefully. Nope. None of them. All your friends died in sweet sweet agony."

The demon's excessive cries for death, although a tad unsettling, left Maximilian sorely confused. "I might be missing the point here, but he," pausing for a brief moment Maximilian gestured towards Logan. "tried to kill you already. So unless you're trying to point out that you're much stronger than us, which after your- spectacle on the floor there and now this outburst... I'm just not seeing it. Obviously you're not trying to imply we have any moral issues with killing you once again, he already tried... So what is? Do you always just take to being miserable?" There must have been more to the beast's taunting but Maximilian couldn't help himself, when a wound presents itself salt will always find its way. "So when's the trapping part come along" Maximilian spouted out in an attempt to catch Alice's attention. "torture on the field is excessively messy business, or will you be killing it?" he added in almost condescending tone.

Logan listened to the demoness's incessant chatter with a blank expression. After she had finished speaking, Logan locked eyes with Alice for a brief moment before returning his steely gaze to the woman. A little bit of holy water went a long way, it seemed. Logan was glad that Adi had convinced him to bring it rather than a larger weapon. He withdrew the container once again.
"Ye dunnae know the meaning of agony yet." He spoke coldly, tossing the can to Alice.
Maximilian had a few more verbal assaults for the demon himself. He and the others were right. She really was pathetic. A bit of sanctified water and she was already one foot in the grave. The very thought that such a lowly creature could even touch a vehicle full of trained omnividents was in itself ridiculous. No, not by herself. He was curious about these "Lords" she had spoken of, however.

Adi was caught off guard by his fellows. They had acted almost rashly in trying to subdue a power greater than them but it seemed to have worked. Whilst he hadn't reacted at all to the taunting and the description of how his friends had died, as soon as the new student Maximilian mentioned torture he acted.

Roughly slipping past the assembled circle of students looking down at her piteous form he stabbed his weapon down on to the devil's gut. It had been enlarged and he had made sure it would pin her to the ground.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to kill you," he said coolly, twisting the knife a few times for good measure.

He gave her a quick kick in the head, her head snapping inhumanly fast as he pulled the grenade in to view. Kneeling next to her he dangled the explosive in front of her eyes.

"You, you know what this is right?"

It was a rhetorical question. Most here already knew it was a grenade meant for exorcism but they probably hadn't figured out the specifics of it.

"This here, is a grenade filled with the holy equivalent of napalm. I'm sure that with a bit of creativity, I can recreate the fire which you speak so highly of."

The blade still in the demon grew larger and he lopped the top end of the grenade by running it through the edge, taking care to not disrupt the ignition mechanism. A small bit of oil splashed on to the demon and no doubt she would be feeling it's effects soon.

Turning to the fire using chain smoking junior he spoke, "Junior Krol, a light, if you'll please."

To Alice it was quickly becoming apparent which of the students were reliable. She dispelled her bow and caught the can of holy water, ignoring Maximilian's obvious antagonism. Adi, after all, was experienced enough to know that his skills were ideal for trapping, and had taken the initiative already. But too much initiative turns into recklessness, as the boy demonstrated by turning a grenade into a cup of explosive liquids.

"Now, now, Adi," she began. "We don't need to resort to that... Not quite yet. We still have this." She held up the holy water for both the demon and Adi to see. "Even if that doesn't work we can always ask Basil to break her spirit. But we won't need that, will we?" Alice certainly hoped not. Hearing the monster describe the deaths of her peers in such gruesome detail made her feel like old wounds were ripping open, and they still needed to find Rachel. "Tell you what, demon. We're going to be leaving soon. Spill out everything you know. If I'm not satisfied by the time we're ready to head up, I'll pay you back tenfold for what happened to those students."

Johnathan dispelled his billhooks and leaned against a wall with one foot against it. It was pretty obvious he wasn't going to fight. He would have applied to be a member of the antagonizing crew, but it seemed like all the spots were taken. And the firing squad already had the demon on the ground. Right now he felt like a liability, he felt useless. Maybe she was right. Everyone else seemed to have amazing powers and all he could do was draw sigils. How would he do against stronger ghosts? The ghosts he fought were weak, pitiful. But that's all the more reason to get stronger. For now he would just let the firing squad finish their job. He was beginning to have second thoughts if that energy he felt before even belonged to this demon. It only took a couple of hits to bring her down. She can be stalling. But for what? Another ghost to come in? Someone to go after Rachel while she had the ragtag group of students occupied? She might be teasing them. Acting like that to bring their guard down. Waiting for the right moment to strike. All he could do was wait to see how this episode would turn out.