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⠀⠀╲⠀╲⠀☆ ⠀          ╲ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀☆⠀ ╲⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀   ★
⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀★

𝟬𝟯. 𝗪𝗘𝗟𝗖𝗢𝗠𝗘 𝗧𝗢 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗝𝗨𝗡𝗚𝗟𝗘
"ɪᴛ'ꜱ ʜᴀʀᴅ ᴛᴏ ʙᴇᴀᴛ ᴀ ᴘᴇʀꜱᴏɴ ᴡʜᴏ ɴᴇᴠᴇʀ ɢɪᴠᴇꜱ ᴜᴘ."
ɢᴇᴏʀɢᴇ ʜᴇʀᴍᴀɴ ʀᴜᴛʜ...

THE NEXT MORNING CAME ALL TOO QUICKLY FOR ADDISON and when he stepped out of the elevator on the sixteenth floor the last thing he expected was to see all the eager faces waiting for him in the common area. To be honest, he'd half-expected these rookies to either be late or just not show up. He wouldn't blame them. If they decided to quit while they were ahead, it would be understandable. The odds they were going to be facing were tremendous and Asmodeus wasn't exactly low-level. They'd all have to be on their best game if this was ever going to work.

Addison would never be able to promise that they would all make it out of this alive. And he knew that. He just doesn't want to scare anyone away from a job that needs to be done. If not for his fallen friends, then for the sake of the world.

"Mornin' crew," Addison grumbles, coming to a stop in front of them all. "You're all early."

"Good morning Addison," Jason flashes a bright smile, charming as ever. He approaches and hands Addison a warm coffee, it smells like fresh-baked cinnamon rolls. "I think everyone is ready to jump into this thing already. We all know why we're here and what we want. I asked everyone to be here at seven, sharp. For you."

"I-" Addison stares blankly. "Thanks. And for the coffee, too."

He takes a tentative sip, careful of its heat. It's not piping hot and it's not cold, it sits at just the right temperature and it tastes so sweet. The cinnamon washes over his senses and, for a brief moment, he feels a comfort he hasn't felt in months. Like a feeling of safety. It instantly reminds him of cozy days with his dads, memories long buried in the haze of loss and grief that rules his life. Addison lets his eyes close. Just this once. Lets the feeling take control for a moment. Then he opens his eyes and Jason's still smiling at him, unaware of the peace he'd just brought.

"Anything for you," Jason turns to look at the group behind them. He's as pleasant as ever. "I know they have a lot of training to do, so I thought it would be best if we got an early start and got going. I hope I'm not overstepping here."

"No, no you're not." Addison surveys the group. He nods to the members of the team that are on the right side of the room which includes Grayson, Livia, and Sasha. "You take them for an overview, Liv and Sasha got all their training when they first joined. The good professor there will need to review the resources the SSB has kept out of the public, he's got a bit of demon history to catch up on so he can help us out. Full access."

"Understood."

"Yay!" Grayson brightens at the mention of forbidden history while Sasha and Livia go to stand beside Jason, both looking relaxed and well-rested. Grayson is just pure ecstatic energy, like a golden retriever being let outside in the morning. "Library dayyy! Does this mean I get all of the redacted info?"

"You know it baby," Jason chuckles. "We'll be in the library if you need us."

Addison nods while they leave. "Alright... now Cosmo? Where are you?"

"I'm here!" Cosmo moves at the back of the room, raising a tentative and slightly shaky hand. "Back- back here, sir."

"Great," Addison gestures with his coffee. "You're with me. Come here. We're going to go with Tara, Tommy, Valeria, and Ezra to go over the weapons we have here at the SSB and how to best use them against our enemies. Everyone else will be going with Sergeant Kang-Walsh for orientation to the research side of things, our systems, that kind of stuff."

As the groups begin to converse and split off, Addison carefully evaluates Cosmo's appearance.

His brown hair is messed up like he's slept on the floor all night and the tips of his horns just barely peek out from his hair, a detail you'd have to be looking for to notice. He's wearing the same frayed sweater from the night before and he looks tired beyond all hell. But there's still a steel to him that Addison can pick out. Maybe it's in the way he stands straight and rigid. Or maybe it's how he glances across the room at the other members, an unspoken confidence within him. There was more to Cosmo than meets the eye and Addison liked that unpredictability. He wanted to keep a close eye on this one.

Before the others could make their way over to the pair, Addison leans towards Cosmo. "Where did you sleep last night?"

"Um... in the conference room."

"Do you have a place to stay?" Addison keeps his voice low. Cosmo's business is not the group's business. He just wanted to make sure everyone on the team was treated well. As their leader, he was attempting to take a page out of Nessa's book and take a real interest in others. She was always so selfless in ways he never had been. When she noticed something was off, she said something.

Cosmo gives Addison a skeptical look, eyebrows raised. "Not really. I- uh, I kind of didn't have anything before this. Not really, anyways. Just dirty motels and spare couches. Few clothes. It's not a big deal. I figured-"

"You're gonna stay with me until we can get you a place then."

"What?" Cosmo starts to protest. "No, sir- no way! I couldn't make you-"

"You're not making me do anything," Addison scoffs as the others in their little band approach. "We're a team. You're going to be taken care of. End of story. We can discuss this further later."

Tara is the first to reach them, a bright and friendly smile giving her features a new light. "Hey Cosmo, hey boss. What kind of weapons do we get to play with today?"

"All of them." Addison sips his coffee, once more indulging in the sweetness. "This'll be an introductory course. You all still have to train for the next month with our cadres to get up to the SSB standard. After that is when our mission can begin."

Tommy, Valeria, and Ezra get into earshot to catch Addison's last statement. While Ezra's face remains resolute and carefully void of any telling emotions, some of the others show some measure of excitement that's almost childlike in nature with carefree smiles and hums of interest. To normal people not involved in demon business this probably wouldn't sound like such a field trip, but for those who have seen the darkness firsthand the SSB's armory was the equivalent of going to the Louvre in France. There was much to marvel at. And they weren't even ready for demon history yet either.

Tommy, on the other hand, looked more offended than anything.

"Sorry," they tilt their head to the side. "You said we still have a whole ass month of training before we can even start? Why?"

Addison sighs. "I told you, Hotshot, the interview was the first part. You all still have to learn how to be part of a team not only with each other but me, too. And you have to have some history lessons, tactics, weapon familiarization. It's a lot. Thought you said you were ready for this."

"I am!" Tommy huffs. She gives a half-hearted shrug. "Just wondering why it would take a whole month... what, you don't have, like, an accelerated-learners course or something?"

He deadpans.

"I take that as a no," Tara grimaces slightly, wary of Tommy's unrelenting stare as they look right back at Addison in silence, a challenge. The moment eases past. "Which I guess makes sense. For our safety, and probably everyone else's too."

"Tara's right." Addison turns away and starts to go towards the elevator. The others follow in his steps. "Safety. I'd really rather know that you can all handle yourselves and make use of any weapons at our disposal. You never really know when adaptability will save your skins. Especially when we'll be in unknown locations most of the time. There are no shortcuts, Hotshot. Do we all understand?"

"Of course," Tara says.

"Yeah," Ezra finally speaks. His voice is gruff like he's been chewing on gravel half his life. "Your impatience will get people killed. Never be in a hurry to die."

"Hey asshole," Tommy shoots back, already on fire. Her voice is laced with ire and offense and although Addison's back is turned on her he can only imagine the look on her face right now. "I'm not in a hurry to die! I'm in a hurry to stop other people from dying. Or worse, losing the ones they love."

Ezra does not respond as they pile into the elevator. Cosmo tucks immediately into the corner and Addison stands between him and the rest of the group. Ezra looks to Addison for which floor number to push, fingers hovering over the numbers, while the girls stand at the back. Ezra stands the closest to the doors, muscle working in his jaw as they silently close shut.

"SB-10."

"What does the 'SB' stand for?" Valeria's voice is a stark contrast to Tommy's. It is soft and quiet, almost lost as Ezra quickly presses the corresponding button which comes to life with a gentle white glow and the elevator jolts downwards. Not up.

Addison meets her eyes. "Sub-basement. Ten floors below the ground. I hope nobody here is claustrophobic." He scans the recruits with a knowing eye, reading tension steadily coiling in Ezra's body. With his shoulders drawn in and the way he was standing a hair's breadth from the doors, he looked on edge. Was he always wound like a spring or was it the tight quarters?

"So," Valeria's soft voice captures his attention again. "The Bureau has... twenty underground floors?" she gestures to the buttons on the wall. "Why are there so many? How many people work here?"

"Twenty-five, actually." Addison corrects her. "There's a separate elevator at the opposite end of the twentieth floor that only a certain group of employees are allowed to use. They're, uh, paid much more than any of us."

"Wow... what do they do?" Tara tilts their head.

Rookies, Addison thinks. Always full of questions.

"That's their business," he gives a half-hearted shrug. "I don't ask questions when we have our work cut out for us. And to answer your other question, Miss Espinosa, the Bureau has about five-hundred employees at any given time. There's so many floors because we all do a lot of very important jobs. For the Demon Department alone, we're granted six of those twenty floors. Seven if you count the library that we get nearly unlimited access to but that's mostly run by the Intelligence Department. Their pièce de résistance, if you will."

For every floor they pass, the elevator gives a quiet tick! tick! tick! as the numbers steadily go down at a smooth pace. Next to him, Cosmo eyes the numbers at the top warily.

Tommy perks up, a new kind of light behind her eyes. "So the Intelligence Department knows things? Demon things?"

"Everything-things. It's where all our nerds go."

"Have you ever encountered a dark misty shadow?"

Almost instantly, Addison remembers from Tommy's file that she had mentioned her close friend, Zander, being killed by a shadow. Between that and her rush to get her application in, her reasons for seeking out the SSB were all too obvious. Maybe only to him, though.

Ezra casts a short look over his shoulder, a flash of recognition on his features, then he turns back to watch the numbers go down. "A quickmist?"

"It was very fast," Tommy stares hard at the back of Ezra's head. "And misty. So, yes."

"No," Ezra sighs. "I'm saying I think I've seen what you are talking about. A quickmist. That's what some of us solo hunters would call them. Is that what the SSB calls them, Sergeant Walsh?"

Addison hums in agreement. "Yeah," he glances over to Cosmo. "There's a few different terms. But quickmist is the common name. It's kind of a rare type of shade... like, there's only a few recorded throughout our known history."

"And I assume never for good reasons?" Tara crosses her arms as the elevator slows to a stop. The doors open and Ezra immediately steps out, not wasting another second in the crowded space.

"You'd be right." Addison ushers Tara and the others out. "Their motives aren't really known. There's spans of years where quickmists aren't anywhere to be found. And then all of a sudden they'll show up and push pieces in all kinds of directions. Killing people, revealing secrets, hiding things."

Once everyone is out of the elevator, Tommy sighs heavily. "What I'm hearing is I might never find out why I lost someone close to me."

"Correct..." Addison grimaces as he trails off. There aren't any words he can offer that seem appropriate at the moment. If he could help, he would try but with how little anyone knew about quickmists there wasn't really anything that could be done to give Tommy the answers they require. Maybe it was selfish of Addison to think, but he was glad the moment slid past without further challenge.

He leads the group down a narrow hallway. There are a few doors that shoot off the hall but at the end is a giant oak door loaded with various carvings that depict some sort of bloody, awful battle between two entities. The sun and moon kissing in the sky. Bodies at their feet. Bones in the ground. With the sharpness of detail and age of this door, a true master craftsman was behind this art piece. Probably a long dead craftsman, but someone of skill all the same. Every time Addison approaches this door, cool shivers run down his spine. His blood chills. His legs tingle with the urge to run away and never come back.

But behind this door is the physical training and sparring area. Hunter culture was so weird.

As soon as they draw close, he can feel the mood of the recruits shift behind him. Maybe some of them feel the same way he does. Maybe some want to run. Maybe they want to fight. Either way, everyone stays silent. It's the kind of silence that would let you hear a pin drop.

Addison uses his shoulder to push open the doors, straining momentarily against the heavy oak. It creaks when they open. And on the other side is a vast expansive room with high ceilings and bright light fixtures. To the immediate left is the armory with all manner of weaponry hanging from hooks in the walls and laying out on tables with the steadfast armorer Horsch Schmitt standing over them, taking stock of his inventory.

To the immediate right are the sparring rings, two twelve by twelves where bones have been broken, skin has been bruised, and blood has been spilled. Two rather well-muscled cadres are there discussing training plans beside one of the rings, heads bent over a shared sheet of paper. The rings are a light grey color with a plethora of old stains and well-worn ropes.

And dead ahead is all manner of physical exercise equipment, even a few mock-courses at the back of the space that simulate clearing rooms, breaking into buildings, and escaping multiple methods of capture. When Addison first joined the SSB, his cadres called this floor The Jungle because this training ground was intense and in order to survive it, one would have to gain a mastery or near-mastery of all skills before they could be cleared for fieldwork.

"Welcome to the Jungle." Addison turns to his group. Everyone stares back at him, uncertainty among some faces. "This is where we'll be coming every day for the next month. We'll have some classroom days with everyone else but as the fighters of Team Hellbound, this is going to be our scones and butter. Questions?"

Lacey's Note:
My apologies for delays in the next chapter but I finally got to a space where I was able to finish this one and somewhat expand on some of our characters here! It is somewhat tough to juggle so many characters and give them different voices when I'm used to only a few in any given scene of other books I write. I like the challenge, but I'm often looking towards the notes I have on everybody just in case lmao.

Please let me know what you guys think! I'll see y'all in the next one.

Until next time!