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"Ah good. I was beginning to think I was starting some sort of record." He gave the blond a brief smile before he looked over the rest of the class.

"What are we doing for this mission..?" He asked curiously. "Its not something like the last..." He cut himself off, not wanting to bring up any unwanted memories. "Is it..?" He finished, looking a tad nervous.

Not too long after that and more trainees started arriving. A few he had come to know better since waking up.

"Hey Kat, Eva, Wilson." He gave the three trainees a wave, before giving a Wilson a sly grin. "Well... not as late." He teased before returning a wave to Deryk who had just arrived.

Madison nodded to herself with satisfaction as the replies came back; having her phone buzzing in her pocket, with answers from friends, was weirdly reassuring. However, as the friends she'd summoned began to trickle in - starting with Robert - some of that reassurance slipped away. Because Robert looked terrible.

And Madison, sadly, was not quite as diplomatic as Jordan. "Dude. What happened? You look like hell. You didn't catch Ennea's cold, did you?" she asked Robert, with a look of concern.




And oh, there was Davey over there, too. She raised one hand and waved at him as well.

Aleister looked up from where he was sitting and grinned. "Hi Cass!" He looked pretty excited maybe a little too eager to do something he hoped didn't involve death.

He pulled out a chair beside of him for her, "I wonder what we're up against this time. Hopefully nothing as painful as the last one." He gave a chuckle he must've been getting a little bored.

"T..thank you," said Gale, now feeling faintly embarrassed by Davey's praise. The embarrassment, however, was tinged by both pleasure and pride, Gale's face flushing a bit more. He was proud that he'd been promoted, proud of his own accomplishments - even if those accomplishments were tainted by the ugly blot that was the first Sahara Desert mission, as well as the second.

Golden eyes moved around the room, glancing from person to person. "Same here. I feel like all I do is train lately. Train, eat, and sleep."

He didn't add that the other thing he did was think of the bodies, rotting and fleshless, maggots crawling in and out of empty eye sockets, in every nightmare every night. They haunted him, more than anything else he'd experienced since becoming a hunter, even dying twice.

"I'm not that exciting," mumbled Gale, his cheeks now burned red as he looked studiously away from Davey, pushing his bangs away from his face. It was true that he was in a new uniform, with his hair pulled back differently (and maybe - hopefully - he was even a little taller, but that might have been pushing it), but he felt no different.

"Oh, by the way - " Gale turned and gestured to Ryan, pulling the other forward. "Davey, this is Ryan. Ryan, Davey. Ryan's a hatchling as well," he explained. "And Davey's a..."

There was a pause. Could he call the other man a friend, or was that exaggerating?

"...er, yeah," finished Gale lamely. "We're both Brits, as you can tell."

He brushed his fringe away from his eyes again and said "I'm not entirely certain what this mission is, exactly. Bix just texted me and asked me to come and bring someone while I was at it. And apparently - " He swept his hand around the room. " - everyone's coming. All the trainees, at least."

Ryan's voice had been hesitant; Gale flashed him a half smile, lips barely quirking upwards.

"I don't think it'll be like the last one."

"It'll be good to get out again," Davey agreed. Sure, he kept active even in downtime. But the same old activities were getting boring. He missed being in the field already. "Hopefully this will be better mission than the last one."

Gale wasn't the only one still disturbed by the pit of squishy corpses. Just yesterday, Davey had been walking the ground and stepped in something that immediately went splat. He'd been afraid to look down, just in case it was another rotting corpse-part. (In his defense, who knew where the bodies had ended up. He also severely doubted that Dr H followed any sort of safe disposal practices, if it was something from his lab. Though he wouldn't put it past the doctor to be trolling the trainees, either.)

Eyeing the new recruit, Davey held out his hand to shake. "Welcome to the club, Ryan. Been here for long?"

He snorted as Gale gave up on a description for Davey apart from 'Brit'. "I'm the scary, mean guy, is what he means," Davey said, deadpan. Was he teasing Gale? Quite possibly, though it was hard to tell.

"I see you've already met Evie. We were partnered up last mission. Good head on her shoulders," Davey nodded. He'd work with her again, which was a pretty solid recommendation coming from mister grumpy and intolerant himself.

Glancing around the room, Davey saw it was filling up quickly. It seemed the 'hatchlings', as Gale put it, had boosted their numbers dramatically. Spying Madison waving at him, Davey gave a small smile and waved back. She looked busy with a teammate (was that... Robert? he recalled vaguely from the get-together) who appeared to be half-dead. Davey arched a brow at Maddie, tilting his head questioningly. Was Robert really going to be okay to go out on a mission like that?

"I don't know yet either, I just got a text from Gale," he jabbed his thumb in the blond's direction. "to come here if I was interested in a mission." He said, answering Deryk with a shrug. "How have you been by the way? I haven't seen you since that last mission." He started to ask, just as Gale brought Davey forward for introductions.

"Ah, thanks and nice to meet you. Don't really get the scary part though." He replied, extending his own hand towards the other; careful not to offer the wrong one. ( Wouldn't that be awkward... ) "Uhh... about a week and a half... I think..." He answered. He really didn't remember...

"Oh! So you are from the UK! Figured you might be, with the accent and all. Must be nice though. Having someone from your own country here, I mean."

It wasn't until Gale spoke again that he tried his best not to look nervous. He really shouldn't be. He probably had nothing to worry about, and besides, if Gale was sure this wouldn't be like the last mission, he'd believe him.

When Ryan motioned to them, Deryk glanced over at Gale, and also the one armed dude standing by. His gaze lingered on the latter for a little longer. The question of how he lost that arm came up, but he didn't vocalize it. He waved to them, then looked back at Ryan.

"Been alright I suppose. Just got back from another mission recently. Had to go to that Halloween place. Kinda weird. Wasn't... too bad? Little nerve wracking but nothing too horrible happened for the most part. You been holding up alright?" he asked in return.

At the mention of this mission probably not being like the last big one, Deryk let out a sigh of relief. Well, that was a good sign.

Hopefully.

Looking over at Eva, he nodded quickly and sat himself down. Good idea.




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