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That night had been strangely sleepless for Hanna. She was wide awake when the shouting began and took a few seconds to throw on presentable clothes. The long chunks of hair that framed her face had been pulled back and braided into a crown encircling the rest of her hair -- it had been the 'important business' she stayed up late working on. Jogging down the hallway behind the other Hunters, Hanna felt the bubbling mix of fear and adrenaline beginning to rise in her veins.

That nearly doubled when she laid eyes on the lighthouse.

The last time she was here, Hanna had gone to the Sahara to be swallowed, infested, and burned. That was not something she wanted to repeat again, but this time, she was determined not to be a burden or a failure. She was going to be a goddamn competent hunter.

You're with me? Her own voice echoed in her head. Adelphe had been carrying anger, lots of anger, at being abandoned to stillness when Hanna ended up back in the pod for 2.5 years. She had taken out her revenge little by little -- the worst when she didn't shield Hanna completely in the Sahara. They hadn't properly hashed things out, but were tentatively doing better.

After a moment, the heavy voice that resided in her head replied, Do not embarrass me, ghoulie. Which was good enough for Hanna, for now.

When it came time for her, Hanna slipped through the portal, heart racing in her chest. The first thing that hit her was the blinding light and then -- sand. Her feet caught and she stumbled forward, but recovered quickly, working actively to control her breathing lest it appear she were having a panic attack and therefore needed to repodded or killed or some other unpleasantness. Were they ******** kidding her? "Why does it always have to be desert..." she murmured, following the pack over to the main tent and sliding her goggles down over her eyes.

And then Caelius was there, what. What. Hanna stared hard at him, straightening up her posture and trying to look super competent as he rattled off instructions. She sure as s**t didn't want to let him down, though everything she did probably would, in some way. He seemed like the kind of person who was impossible to please, which only made Hanna want to impress him more.

Golden eyes flashed around as orders went out and groups began to form. Another Death Hunter passed a basic Fear detector to her, rattled off some instructions and told her to meet with a Sun Hunter.

Thank God it was Cami.

With little time to rest, Hanna accepted her assignment and went jogging off in search of her partner. As long as she was actively doing something, she didn't have time to be scared.

When Melvin went from the labs to bed, he hit the bed hard. He usually didn’t stir until Rin woke up, mumbled something to her about having a good day, and went right back to sleep. Since he stayed up late, sleeping when most were waking up was important, and he was usually dead to the world until his alarm went off.

His dreams were strange, and he had a sort of inward chuckle that he was looking over a menu with death, but after the first novelty of the idea went away, he found himself nervous and paranoid. He was having dinner with death. In no universe was that a good thing, and he half expected Rep’s little joke on Twitter had somehow invaded his mind and he was going to be offered Chocolate. At least Death, or Melvin’s version of it, was impeccably dressed, and he delighted in seeing him in a suit and tie. If it wasn’t for the voice, he could have imagined having dinner with Simon. That was by far a much better dream than this one.

As cryptic as some dreams were, he didn’t get what was being discussed much, and chalked it up to it being a dream. A short one that he was yanked from as hundreds of hunters started banging on doors, and as he looked and they went to open the door, found out they had -5 seconds to get dressed and get out. This was not his morning, and groggy, he threw on some fresh clothes, grabbed Saliva from the nightstand along with his phone and glasses, and left with Rin.

“Of all the nights.” He said as they walked across the field. “I’m exhausted.” He said over the stretch of a yawn. Rubbing his eyes under his glasses, he went with Rin and made sure to stick close to her in line until he stepped through the portal. He waited for her on the other side, and once she was out, headed with the mob.

“Ugh. The desert again.” He hated the Sahara. It always meant bugs, and the last one had left him shaken and shooting wildly due to a panic attack. “Hey, uh…if we see bugs….sorry if I freak out.” He said to her, wanting to warn her if he lost his marbles at any point.

He went to the tent where they had been ushered and grabbed what was given. Anything to give them an edge. He picked up the devices and was surprised that there were this many hunters for this mission. It wasn’t just some of them – it was ALL of them.

Stepping away, he looked at the mass of hunters and over to Rin, worried. “That’s….a lot of us. Do you think they called the entire island out for this?” It sounded serious.

Rin's dreams were far more serene. A blue stag grazing at the edge of a lake. Placid and beautiful. She had been dreaming a lot about that lately, and it was what prompted her to receive the tattoo sprawled delicately across the side of her neck. It was getting closer and closer to the waters edge when suddenly a loud bang erupted. The deer fell dead instantly with blood dripping from its nose and mouth. The loud banging continued as dreams bled into reality and she found herself subject to a rude awakening. She threw her clothes on and wrapped her deep green scarf loosely around her neck, concealing the stag from her dreams. She reached to seize Melvin's hand at the first opportunity and clutched it like a vice as they were herded like cattle into the halls, their bodies were jostled and shoved by the faceless shadows of their comrades as they schooled to the portals - and through them. The dark dream-like state was startled by the bright glaring sun. Melvin's whining fell on deaf ears for a time until her senses returned.

"I don't know Melvin," her tone was stern but laced with wisps of fear. It really was strange to see this many hunters all in one place. Let alone called out in the middle of the night like that. Something major was in fact going down. She rushed to retrieve her equipment and immediately put it on. She could hardly see as it was.

"I don't care if you freak out either," she assured as she already was herself. Just more inwardly.

"Do you think the others are here?"

At this point, Ryan wasn't the least bit surprised at being woken at the earliest hours of the morning and being shooed down to the lighthouse in preparation to leave through a portal. Nor was he surprised when the majority of the island was doing the same. He did however, wave away the goggles that were offered. Choosing to only take the headset, scanner and runic devices. Given he had his own pair of goggles, thanks to Kat, he didn't really have a need for second pair. Though in all honesty, he was relieved that they had started giving goggles out as a standard item for missions. After all, their usual destinations often involved both snow and sand in your eyes, resulting in temporary blindness.

However nothing ever prepared them for that damned sun.

Stepping through the portal, Ryan inwardly cursed as the sun's rays beat down on them all, causing the same blindness he had hoped the goggles would have prevented from sand and snow. Fortunately, after some rapid blinking, he was able to see again. Though he wasn't quite sure what to think of the view he had in front of him. To sum it up in one word, he would have to say that it was, bizarre.

However, the scenery was quickly put to the back of his mind, as they were led away and into a tent. Thankfully sparing them some shelter from the sun. If only temporarily.

"Disposable, huh?" He leaned in closer to Kat, so that his voice was barely a whisper. "I wonder what our survival rate of this mission is going to be." There was a slight tug on his lips as he half smiled, turning his attention back to the Death lead. Who at the moment, was drilling into their heads to follow - pretty much whatever they told them to do, without question. No change there then. If Caelius was leading them, it was pretty much a guaranteed suicide mission.

Otto had awoken to the blaring of alarms, and the pounding of a hunter at his door. Himself and Cami had woken with a start, nearly having heart attacks in their beds. It took a very pushy hunter to rouse them from bed. The alarm was enough to break through Otto's sleepy headedness, although it did nothing to ease the haze of confusion. A mission. An urgent one. That was all he focused on.

Ignoring the pounding pain in his chest, he hurriedly put on clothing, his jacket and shoes, grabbed his bag and dragged Cami out the door. She was just a trainee, after all. They were both in Sun. He ought to help her out, right?

The speech was usual. It was actually calming, really, hearing Caelius spout off his usual banter in the desert. The desert was of course a place Otto had nothing but contempt for; body collecting, bug hunting, and kidnapping. It also meant Horsemen. It meant they had a mission that would involve them. It meant maybe he could finally bring himself some closure. Maybe they were actually going to do something about them.

Cami seemed odd. She was always emotional, but now? Kind of stoic. He'd wanted to ask why, but....

Kat snorted at Ryan's comment before replying with an answer. "My guess is negative one-hundred percent survival chance. But hey, I would be a little disappointed if we came here and didn't get at least a little action." Her reply was then followed by the Sun hunter ruffling the blonde Moon hunter's hair until her attention was directed towards a former blonde hunter. "Hey, Gale! Doing okay so far. Nothing really to comment on lately, but.. when did you dye your hair? I almost didn't recognize you."

Ryan made a rude sound as Kat ruffled his hair, which now stuck up in all different directions, and moved a hand up in an attempt to smooth it back down.

"Nice. Love the confidence, Kat." He answered sarcastically. "I personally hope we have at least a one percent chance. You know, so we at least have a chance. Aren't you suppose to be the optimistic one?" He finished with a snort and waved a greeting at Gale.

"Oh we're good. We were just discussing the probability of our deaths." He was joking of course. Because in all honesty - he really didn't want to die. At least not in some God forsaken land and under the command of one pissy death lead.

"Hmm, I don't know about fun, but I think I'm all set for pain and horror." He grinned at Nora. This time he was only half joking as he continued to smooth his hair back down.

Kat's grin only grew at Ryan's discomfort. "Oh I am. I'm also being very generous with that percentage." Turning her attention to Gale again, she nodded. "Ahhh, I see. Well, it looks good, anyways." It was going to take a while to get used to seeing Gale with a new hair, when she had only ever known him as a blonde, but at least the colour choice was nice.

Peering over at the unfamiliar face, Kat welcomed her with a small smile. "Nice to meet you, Nora. Too bad this meeting wasn't over a cup of coffee, instead of this place." However, the battle field always did have a way of bringing people together. For better or worse.

"Yes, we'd probably best be getting move on, unless we want to get maimed for not doing our part."