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A gloved hand shot out to grab Jeremy's wrist, "You...should not talk. Anymore." Clarice's bullshit tolerance was beginning to run low. "Trainee. I want you to go over there.." she gestured to the infirmary, just out of hearing distance, "...and I want you to contemplate the meaning of the word professionalism. When I am done here, we'll have a talk. Do you understand? Trainee."

Taking a deep breath, Clarice let go of the trainee and returned her attention to matter hand. Looking over the group, she settled for handing the red pendant to Ariane. "Do not lose this, or use it needlessly. There's a chance for a command to fail, and it's in your best interest not to have more than one or two more failures occur. Now, onto business. First thing is our goal: which is to fill those cages again. Next, our resources: you, your weapons, bait, and these." She carefully lifted the lid of the metal box and revealed 7 small, flat tiles. "Once activated they have enough power to dissipate any student level creature within a one meter radius. They can also hurt the ******** out you too, so be careful."

She closed the lid and gave the group another long look, wondering who was least likely to screw up, and then handed the box off to Gale. "Just set it down and depress the top, you'll know it's set when the tile begins to take on the appearance of the surface it's on. After that, you'll have several minutes to move away."

She glanced over at the demon, "The plan is this, go in, find a viable room and begin setting traps. When you're ready, have the demon to start yelling for help. Based on current evidence, there's a reasonable chance that the house will alter itself to accommodate those actively seeking him. The mines should make this a cakewalk, but be sure to cut down any extras. The cages will catch the creatures on the respawn and will go a long way towards making our superiors slightly more bearable and slightly less prone to turning their wrath on us."

Her cowled head swiveled to Before, "And by have the demon start yelling I mean, use the goddamn command pendant. This is a mission, not a snuff film. Be professional. Treat him as the potential weapon and partner that he is, understand?"

While the hunters seemed to gravitate to the annoying captive Demon, Jerry had... other things on his mind.

He hadn't moved since they had been "disbanded," staring down at his feet. He had been called a Live Wire. Harrison sounded like he meant well enough trying to cheer him up but...

It unsettled him.

Just... get his mind off of it. Harri had gone off to nap,and he gave him a quiet goodbye, watching as the Phoenixes all assembled without him. At least Petra seemed to be alright. He relaxed a little, drawing in a deep breath as he adjusted his glasses. Candace hadn't gone far, now clad in a dark robe... pity, he rather liked the corset on her.

Clearing his throat, he sauntered towards her, trying to sound a bit brighter than he felt, "So... ah... this has... been um. An interesting mission, huh?" He managed lamely.

Candace straightened sharply as Clarice practically ordered her to leave, raising a brow and tilting her head to one side. Normally she would have complied and just left, as it was an order from a superior...but it seemed her teammates weren't ready to leave yet. "I'm not stupid, I'll leave when my team is ready. Which they don't seem to be." She was being honest. Candace wasn't one to defy a superior but she wasn't going in there alone. Besides, she wanted her to keep an eye on Jerry, right? Well then that meant she had to be where he was which frankly she was finding herself happier and happier to do.

..Strange. He wasn't her usual type.

She had actually turned to make sure Jerry was doing alright when Jeremy came outside and began to harass their captive--Bartholomew--and saying...

....

Idiot.

Admittedly Candace had done it first. She'd called out Calder's name and made her presence known to him, but that had been all she'd done. She hadn't tried to jar his memory or touched him. She hadn't antagonized him other than with three words. Candace didn't even so much as smirk when Clarice reprimanded him. He deserved it. Idiot.

Candace half-listened to the explanation on the new mission, feeling no need to really pay attention as she normally would simply for the fact that her team wasn't going to be doing this. But...bomb placement actually sounded really fun. As did controlling a creature. And the thrill of catching something must have been delightful. It made her heart ache with jealousy and she frowned, pulling her hood up again to hide her face for now. There'll be other chances. If we can't use the equipment maybe she'll let us just get up there and kick some a** ourselves! Candace gave a soft chuckle under her breath. Not likely. I seem to have pissed our dear Clarice off.

Jerry was a very welcome distraction. She chuckled and grinned, giving a nod. "Mm, yes. Do you want to sit down while we wait for Harrison to wake up? This is probably the last chance we have to sit and relax before we go back inside." They would be going back inside. She was sure of it. There was no other option. Candace cast a glance toward Clarice and the others before turning to take Jerry's hand in her own and begin to lead him a little ways away from the group, keeping her hood up and her voice hushed.

"Look...I...it's...really, really hard to say this. But well..." Candace frowned, thankful for the shadow of her hood to cover her face. She let go of Jerry's hand to throw her arms around him, hiding her face against one of her own arms. "I'm sorry I haven't been more useful. I don't know what's wrong with me." She rolled her eyes at herself before leaning back to cup Jerry's face in her gloved hands, stroking his cheeks with her thumbs. "Don't take what Clarice said to heart, okay? Or even what Harrison said. We can work on your temper, 'kay? Though I gotta admit," Candace shook her head enough to get the hood off her head so she could smirk and wink at the man, leaning in to rest her forehead against Jerry's. "You're cute when you're angry. Just try not to be so quick to whip out your bazooka, alright?" Oh, Candace. That was a terrible joke.

((HOW DID THIS WALL OF TEXT HAPPEN WTF))

Silly, lighthearted, spazzy Before was not here at the moment. Oh it was still Before, there wasn't any personalities or DID going on here. But the experience in the Gym coupled with seeing a teammate die right in front of him left Before with two choices of reaction: Break down sobbing from remembering how he had been ordered to kill and be killed or just shut all the feelings out for the moment. Or at least until he's sure it's not going to be another turn-on-each-other fest.

Wiping the drying blood from his noise with the back of his other hand, he continued to listen to Clarice. He took extra note of her form and figure and that she was right there. The last thing he wanted was to hear instructions from a dismembered voice. If that had happened... Before will most likely fall into a fetal position and begin blubbering. Not very becoming or useful. And he wanted to stop being dead weight so badly.

"I understand," he nodded to the assistant before he gave Bix, Gale, Tika, Ariane, and Barth Private Ryan. Grim-faced and tight-lipped, Before decided to focus on the task at hand. Set Refill the cages, set the traps, GTFO when activated, keep an eye out on the color, and be prepared to rip the pendant off Boss' neck at a moment's notice. Alright, he was ready.

Bix followed dutifully. He'd wait to talk to his team mates when they were away from Clarice. They also had to be very careful about what they said around the prisoner. Apparently the other guy, Jeremy, was an idiot by spilling the infiltration beans like that.

He tried to put the pendants into the back of his mind and as a reassurance, he slung his arm around Before's shoulder. They were bros. They'd been through that together and now they had to be very careful together since no one else seemed to be quite as wary.

[[ Exit to ITS A TRAP ]]

As Ariane had said, here he was too outnumbered to find trying something...wise. Especially with the scythe and whip humans still lurking around. Deeper into the house, with five trainees, his odds improved.

He also severely doubted there would be anyone left to be bait for.

Which meant he could bide his time, and...and what, find his way on his own from the human world to Halloween? Emily had hidden herself for three months in a cornfield. And he was just one very minor demon, it wasn't like the whole organization would come down on his head if he went missing. He would figure something out. In the mean time, hejust needed to be very careful, and very civil, and wait for an opportunity.

Barth gave Clarice a weak smile, and slowly tagged along after the other five humans.

Exit to Trap.