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Jake was kind of expecting an explosion.
He was kinda disappointed when nothing happened.

When the beeping stopped, he realized he had been holding his breath, and let it out in a rush.
Well, that was... anti-climatic, but hey, no one died, everyone still had all their limbs, and-

He flinched when he heard a clicking sound, thinking the scanner was acting up again, but when he realized it was coming from behind him, he spun around, eyes wide at the stranger. Shock turned to paranoia as he narrowed his eyes at the stranger, hand inching towards his weapon totem.

What were the chances of some sort of human, let alone a college student appearing in the middle of nowhere, especially when just a moment before the scanner was blaring away at some threat. He only scoffed at Gale's question and eyed the boy wearily. This was much too suspicious.

"Who the hell are you?"

"Neeerddss." He took another picture of Bethany, narrating his text as he talked. "I'm at the beach, el oh el, there are some engineering nerds, they are so double-u tee eff. Gee tee gee, smiley face."

The guy turned around, moving towards his parked bicycle up top when he suddenly stopped, staring at his hand-

- Which he had perfectly good reason to as it was glowing red and smoking. Before any Hunters could accuse him of being the culprit, he began to scream, entire body smouldering red for one high-pressured second before-

BLAM.

- It rained pieces of charred debris everywhere. Some of it was still wet. All that remained was his slightly charred backpack and his bike, his phone well beyond busted. On his bike was a student ID card, strapped to a sports drink. It read a name:

James Stevens
East High College
1042 Bridgeport Ave

Thankfully the bike itself was on a very linear path forwards. In fact, there was only one path forwards that lay between an outcrop of crabgrass and the infinite sands - without ocean. A playful breeze encompassed the group -

- As an even more playful shadow appeared out of nowhere and began running down the road. A shadow that was distinctly shaped neither human nor fully creature, a strange combination of both.

Marcus paled. Movie- he remember that mission. Seemed that it had been a fruitless endeavor, and the movie had indeed, gone out. A thing to ask in the event they were sent to a site with goddamn civilians. Bethany was dead, not his division. He dealt with structural repairs, ******** him sideways he knew s**t with runic repairs. A+ they had ******** up already.

Gale got a look of 'you guys are the intel department the ******** it this I just came to be the meat shield.'

Meat shield indeed, as the man made the decision to fly into a bunch of tiny pieces. Dis huffed in his head, stating how rude it was, blowing up on them like that. The human was dead, Dis was mildly annoyed yet tickled pink at the lack of distractions now- Marcus's mind snapped to the camera. Get rid of evidence that they even existed. Granted, Bethany was a rather heavy 'LOOK AT ME I AM MAGIC' thing in the sand, but, Bethany didn't have a face.

Even with something running- Marcus wiped his face, grimacing over his coat. "Gale? Jake?" He motioned to their fleeing shadow, pulling out his phone. "Call in for pickup and clean up while we pursue?" It was Jake's Mission, though Gale's lead would be the one Marcus would lean towards.

The guy only received an incredulous stare from the death trainee.
Beach?
... REALLY??

He frowned as the stranger turned, heading towards his bicycle (how the heck did that thing even get there?), and started following him.

I still find it odd that there's a civilian here in the middle of nowhere, and he conveniently showed up just as the beeping stopped.
<...Jake, you aren't planning anything stupid, are you? He's a HUMAN.>
Relax, most I'll do is break that phone of his. This is Deus intel here. Can't have this stuff leaking out to the public.

Before he could do any breaking though, the human... spontaneously combusted.
The weapons were summoned in an instant and he winced as bits of "debris" bounced off his FEAR shield, though most of the damage was already on his face and clothes.
And his coat was recently washed too.
What the hell just-

He froze as a shadow seemed to appear out of nowhere and started running.
Pausing for a moment, he spun around.
"GALE, YOU'RE IN CHARGE. Marcus, uh... you're in charge too."
With that, he ran after the shadow.

Five minutes into their mission, and things were already exploding.

Literally.

Gale sucked in a sharp breath, willing himself not to throw up the contents of his stomach all over the sand, sand which, after this, he never wanted to see again in his entire life. Keeping himself calm, however, was crucial, considering that Jake was inexperienced, and they had two trainees with them.

He looked towards Marcus, opening his mouth to say something, but -

"JAKE!"

The other had run off, and Gale swore loudly, a glow of white light appearing in his hands as Jinhai appeared, the rifle swinging over Gale's shoulder as he began to run.

"Marcus, keep an eye on Stormy and Sherry," he shouted. "I'm going after Jake!"

He wasn't sure whether or not Marcus would follow - that was up to them now - but Jake was in Gale's division, and Gale was not about to let him just run off by himself.

"Bloody hell."

Vaguely aware of Sherry's proximity, as the boys ran off Stormy slowly came to. Mission. Right. Why was she staring at a . . . meat pile again?

It was going to smell awful in the sun, she thought idly, and took in a deep breath of clean air before moving just in case.

Like a ghost she approached the spot the explosion happened, leaning over and delicately grabbing the backpack and ID left behind, sliding one on and pocketing the other as she turned to Marcus. "Orders, sir?" Stormy asked, still in her characteristically soft voice but with an odd look on her face--like she was having trouble still realizing why she had picked up the object in the first place. "If it means anything, sir, I . . . don't want them to go out there alone."

Hell, Sherry had the right idea, but she was afraid of defying the experienced Hunter in this case. The backpack might weigh her down too, making her more of a liability . . . The trainee fidgeted and took a few steps forward tentatively, tossing Marcus an apologetic look. Waiting was unbearable, basic trainee or not. She'd handle such consequences after the fact and would happily hand herself over to the moon hunter for whatever punishment jumping the gun was, but for now she had to go with impulsive.

Stormy trailed after Sherry's dust, the backpack slapping her back and making her feel like an awkward camel.

"Wait, what, slow down, wha- Marcus. Marcus - " okay, he hung up. She couldn't help but scowl at the phone.

"I hope your boat sinks." she hissed at it. It was a joke, really, that she had told Marcus once and it was the meanest thing she could ever wish upon anybody without actually having a dislike for them.

Which was why Cass went to go start cleaning up a mess over at the portals, massaging her temple as she made the trek over.

"Is there someone here named Bethany?" she asked once there. "Because I got a phone call saying clean-up on aisle two for dead civis and a bunch of running trainees on mission with my husband? I don't think the trainees are dead, but... yeah. Sounded like something went wrong over there... "

She was a bit too casual about this.