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Madison stumbled forward but gladly wrapped her arms around Ennea too - the contact seemed to drive away a little bit more of that bone-deep chill that she'd been feeling every since the pink-haired Hunter had woken her up. She closed her eyes for a moment, leaning and and just letting herself be -

And then Candace spoke, and her eyes opened again, widening slightly. "Oh! Um, yes..." She squeezed Ennea's shoulder as she let go and took a few steps over towards Candace and Clarice. "I don't know what, like, happened but... it was definitely Aria." The memory made her feel a little bit ill, honestly, like recalling a nightmare. Something that couldn't possibly be true, that went away when the sun came up... except it hadn't.

"She had, um, her weapon, but she was someone else too. The freaks called her Red, um... I don't know what happened, but she turned into something, I think? It all happened so fast... she attacked us all. Even the freaks. But mostly Caelius..."

Jude pretty much appeared just as he had disappeared from the battlefield with no real ceremony or thought beyond that of getting perhaps a little look at some of his burn wounds and then maybe finding a bed he could crawl into and sleep it off for a week. Yom also seemed tired where she sat in the corner of his mind.

It was odd that he felt essentially nothing right now though it'd probably all hit him later along with every ache and pain he'd incurred during the fights he'd been in. While bandages help heal many things they didn't really prevent the backlash of what happened later.

Nor did they make burns go away.

The young man looked around for a moment before he shuffled off toward a nearby cot where he wouldn't be in the way of those that were rushing around and helping those that were injured and worse off than he was. He remained standing still not yet ready to take a load off of his feet still feeling too pumped with adrenaline to really relax properly.

Thus he just waited patiently to be addressed, dismissed, or yelled at.

Someone new arrived and Candace looked to see who it was, suddenly feeling fairly mistrusting of arrivals. It..it was okay. It was just Jude. "Hey. You don't look so good.." She commented idly before turning back to Clarice. Had she known her questions were 'surprisingly' good she would have been annoyed. Give her more credit, Clarice. Seriously now.

Candace's eyes were on the thermometer while Clarice explained that what had happened really shouldn't have been able to, but she looked most wary about the device. What was that thing? Was it really to take one's temperature? It didn't look like a normal thermometer. Then again there really was no judging what 'normal' was anymore, was there? Her eyes flickered toward Jerry a moment and she sighed. Nevermind, there was such thing. "So basically what happened...was exactly that? Huh...so...any of these creatures could in theory just take a weapon? It'd just..kill them horrifically?" Candace was tempted to say that sounded just delightful. To Candace it was! The idea of just tricking each and every one of them into the same fate as that traitorous b***h? Heh. It was quite appealing.

"Now that I think about it--huh? Oh...uh..okay." She took the device offered to her and eyed it skeptically. "It's 'just like' one? Is it not really a thermometer?" Candace did as she was told, but there was one more thing she wanted to say. "Now that I think about it...she..taught us how to use our weapons." Candace's brow furrowed with mild concern. "How to use them against her own kind. You don't...think she tried to sabotage us, do you? If she didn't then..well maybe she betrayed her own kind as well. A shame. It'd probably break the hearts of those kids who were screaming her name over and over again as Caelius laid the final blow against her." Shrugging, Candace finally stuck the thermometer under her tongue, peering down at it. She was still suspicious of this thing. 'Just like' a thermometer was not a thermometer. How did this increase precautions?

Jude blinked a bit as Candace addressed him he just smirked slightly, "I'll live," he said in a response it was almost cocky sounding as he followed it up, "They'll have to try harder to kill me."

When someone came up to get him to take his temperature he did so without complaint or struggle. Might as well get it over with.

The probe's alarm went off, and Clarice pulled it out and showed the little LCD screen to the trainee. It listed a short series of numbers and the word GEN. "Short for generator. It means I'm not made of FEAR, but rather, I generate it. Making me human. This is what we use to measure the beasties' FEAR readouts. We enter and compare them to the existing database, and it helps us get a better idea of exactly what we're dealing with. Chances are you guys will be seeing them a bit more often in the coming days, but it all depends on what measures the council sees fit to take."

The fact that this was all due to Aria, was still humming in the back of her head, but at least for now, Clarice had what would likely be a proverbial shitton of work to keep her occupied for the next day or so. "Thank you for the information. You'll likely be asked to get it down in an official report later, but for now we at least know about this...crack in security. If you visit the quartermaster, he'll have spares on hand for you." And a lot of bitching, and nattering about the coats being the symbol of hunter pride and a lot of other bullshit, but Clarice didn't feel this was worth mentioning.

A lab tech called her name across the yard, and with that the assistant was gone.

Bix appeared, rolling a piece of the monster's horn around in his hands. He'd managed to get the very tip and though it was small he'd never forget fighting that beast on their first real mission. Was every mission going to be like this? Was it insanity and drama and betrayal?

Was he going to die and come back again?

The albino hunter was still a bit cold but slowly everything was coming back to him. When he'd 'died' Mina had unsummoned herself and he clutched the bag of marbles like a lifeline. Was his weapon now his best friend? It was hard to say but she was closer to him than anyone else.

"Gale.." Bix found the other hunter alone on a cot. He didn't look keen on talking so Bix didn't say anything else. He simply flopped onto the cot next to him and rolled onto his stomach. The back of his coat was completely burnt up and the shredded remains of a backpack was still wrapped around his shoulders. He had 3 large cuts, sliced across his lower back from the monsters claws but they weren't bleeding and seemed to only be superficial at best. He also looked slightly like a mummy, bound in the bandages that brought him back from the precipice of death.

Bix had also lost about 3 inches of his braid. The white hair was singed at the bottom and starting to unravel.

What a mess.

Ariane was only really half-conscious the entire time - it wasn't like she had never "died" before but this was a million times more painful than being eaten alive by piranhas and then offed with a poisonous dart. She was pretty sure that her pain threshold was considered high, but this? This was probably how it felt like to give birth to a hundred babies at once. Without the crazy screaming, of course. She's not a screamer.

"Ughhh-" She groaned, finally able to feel her limbs as she pinched the bridge of her nose. As her vision begun to clear, she became increasingly aware that there was someone carrying her. It didn't take long for her to recognize the hair color and eyes of the hunter who currently had her in his arms.

Carried like a princess. Whelp. He would never let her live this down.

"Hey Germ," She said in a tone that sounded like she was smirking with her voice alone, that she was laughing at him for being a fool for carrying her and sparing her the trouble of walking - but she knew that he knew her well enough to know that she was actually grateful. And maybe a little happy that he was the one carrying her. Stupid childhood friend knowing all your tricks.