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Mot yelped. skittishly shuffling back a bit as the building collapsed. He stood there shaking in his boots even as things died down, the feel of cold rain on his burns of little comfort. His ears picked up the sound of footsteps in puddles, turning in time to see someone with a blade to Lizzy's back.

His heart stopped, time almost stood still. They had a weapon pointed at Lizzy, his dear and sweet best friend.

They seemed to know one of the hunters. Mot's gaze flicked from them to the new comer with fear. A false move and he'd put Lizzy in danger... Just what was this horrible person talking about. Who did he think he was blaming this on?

He was close to yelling at them both. Ofelia for running in like an idiot, Araine for ignoring orders. Neither of them should have gone into the building. Hell, he shouldn't have gone into the building, but, that was his job. A scowl at the girls, he turned his sights on Deryk, worry mixing into the frustration. "We need to get you to the infirmary Deryk. Burn woulds infect easily without treatment, and we need to make sure the rest of us aren't going down due to smoke inhalation. Please." He added it in, knowing his precarious position within his own division and where he stood. "We've already gone a bit far from the mission objective. At this point, I'm more concerned about our heal-"

The building came crashing down, and debris were strewn about. He coughed again. "Son of a bi-" Orders given, he didn't recognize the voice as it drew his attention from the fallen building. The glowing blade however, was pointed at the wrong person to try and threaten. A hunter could get a charge, that was the only thing to be concerned about. He could care less about the student. Still, a hunter was a hunter, and he was Marcus's senior. He wanted answers, Marcus would give them.
"We were told to observe sir, and eliminate the source of the situation should we encounter it. As Deryk said, these three were with us at the time of the fire."

He remained where he was, watching the other hunter. "While I agree it's always good to meet people off the field, I'm afraid I don't recognize you. You are?"

He was less wary so much as curious. He didn't want to make a name for himself but-

Julie's maxi pad mission.
Julie's art.
His ******** record of ******** ups.
The fact Dis had been left wandering and trying to make out with anything that moved in the last few days.

Marcus really hoped he was known for something good for once.

"Maybe he stayed behind. You know...where we came here from." Junko suggested to Lizzy and Mot with a hopeful smile. Calm down! Calm down! Everyone just calm dow--well there goes the warehouse. She really, really hoped Thackery wasn't in there and was back at that house.

Junko's initial reaction to the sight of yet another glowing weapon was terror and rage, especially when the weapon was pressed against her soulmate and best friend. No! "Get off her!" She snapped, fists clenched and hair curling. Off! Off! Get off her! If they cut off so much as one hair off Lizzy's head...

Had this been a trap?

"Started the fire!?" Junko's jaw dropped. "We didn't do anything! Everything was going just fine until you guys showed up!" Her eyes narrowed at the Hunters who were gathered around them.

Aaaand...then came Ofelia, finally getting a grip after coughing out everything that had been in her lungs. She squinted at this newcomer, holding alcohol and everything else, and a frowned played more than deeply on her lips as she watched how he was interacting with Lizzy (Ofie didn't know her name, but hey! it was okay).

"Nnnn, yeah, please back off'a her Mr. Ranking up there. She saved mah life, Ah, really dun 'preciate yer tryin' ta hurt her like this." The teen had been told not really to move but she did shift her weight forward, like she had the intent to move if needed. "Seems stupid'a her ta try an' kill us an' then come an' save us. Plus yanno, the one wit' the pretty hair saved Deryk. Yer all kinds'a in the wrong here." She stayed leaning forward, ready to move if needs be. She felt no particular affection, hence when she'd moved to stand with the hunters, but she wasn't going to let Deryk's savior and the person who held her hand get cut up by someone with a bag.

. . . a bag that. . . what was in it? Sudden appearance, sudden threats, and a bag? The red-head did not like any of this in the slightest.

Mot wanted to save Lizzy from this man. Even if it meant telling the hunter something he ought not to. None of them had seen their caretakers at all, therefore it was a high probability they had something to do with it.

"We had.. two other guides with us. I haven't seen them since we got here.." He didn't mention DETH. He was not comfortable selling them out, or risking their safety.

d**k snorted at Deryk's response. "So you're the bait huh? How typical of him, it makes a lot more sense as to why you are here at least although..." He seemed to be waffling a bit before the Hunter finally de-summed his weapon, nodding to Marcus and Deryk. Back him up if anything went wrong.

"All right," This was addressed to the students, "Let's say that I do trust you on this one. What can you tell me about your other guides?"

Lizzy turned to look at Deryk, staring hard at him when he said that this was his mission, not liking the sound of that word. Or the word 'bait', for that matter. The one named Marcus seemed to be pretty chatty though, and that hunter who just arrived was asking an awful lot of questions... She paused, turning to the one who had called himself d**k, her brow furrowing; do some humans name their scarelings after an insult?

Poor d**k.

"... It was our first meeting, so we don't know them that well. They were just there to act as chaperons, I think," She answered, taking a step back away from him, and towards her friends, all the while trying to ignore the pain from her burns. She wasn't sure how to feel about Deryk telling this... More hostile hunter about DETH, but since it was out, there was no use hiding it; besides, she smelt something fishy... If there had been so many human deaths in the area due to fires, wouldn't the news report something? And if it was reported somewhere, wouldn't DETH already know about it? So why would they send students to such an area?

... Unless humans do not have newspapers or news on skelevision.

"Like Deryk said, we're here with DETH... An organization for the ethical treatment for humans," She continued warily, knowing that they weren't in a position where they could negotiate, "We have no idea where they are now though. One of them left earlier to do some work, but the other was with us in the building... Or he should have been with us. We didn't see him on the way out... As for where DETH is located, we don't know."

A pause followed as she mused over another piece of information; the hunter mentioned something about the underground sewer network, which was what they had used to get to the building... But was that too much information? She couldn't help but feel like she might be selling DETH out, but if they really were connected to the human deaths, she would be helping to save lives, right?

"We used the sewer system to get to this building," She muttered, "But that doesn't mean that DETH did it."

Slow loud, and deliberate clapping.

"Congratulations, you solved the million dollar question. And the prize is-"

A loud electric cackle, familiar to both factions and then the flare of light, of technology both familiar and foreign at once, a glint of something on the ground

- Runic daggers.

And yet there was something odder, the way their runes glowed orange, not blue, the way they hummed and crackled oddly, the way-

- They sent all Hunters and Halloween creatures twitching on the ground, entirely paralyzed and disabled, body still numb with electricity. Mike, the DETH associate indeed stepped from behind the debris, taking his grand old time as he sat down next to the charred remains of a support beam. "I was actually hoping you would take yourselves out, save me all the work, god I set it up, and I even took the time to play out this grand whole scheme in my head and-"

CLANG. He kicked over a piece of rusty pipe, arm gestures wide and over-emotional, despite the hood covering his face. "-You just had to ******** this all up didn't you? You lot and you and - all of you - who got me into this mess, and look where - and - haha - well-" He ran a hair through his hand, "-I still win now don't I?"

Another loud clack as he threw a brick to one side, just missing Marcus's head. "WINNER WINNER CHICKEN DINNER. But you know, that's just you know, the tip, tip of that iceberg. We haven't even gotten to the cream filling. CAN you guess what the cream filling is?"