Lucas applied an ice pack on Aiden’s stomach as they sat on one of the sofas. The other one was occupied by Scottus, Alastair and Cordelia while the rest sat on various stools and tables in the living room.

“What fucking happened?”

Hellen asked as soon as they sat in a circle in silence. A groan escaped Aiden’s mouth as Lucas pressed the ice a bit too much. Her brows furrowed as she glanced at the Bureau’s team. Scottus had an ice pack for both of his eyes and was sitting quietly. Alastair opened his mouth to speak but Cordelia was faster.

“Why the fuck did Lucas attack Scottus for some mortal?”

Lucas heard her sentence while his gaze was on Aiden. It made him pause momentarily as veins throbbed in his temples. Hellen glanced at him, then replied to Cordelia.

“Who attacked first?”

She knew about these guys. It was very likely that they were from the academy that trained supers. She knew about it since several times in the past, the Bureau used to send youngsters in their group for training and experience going against ghosts. It was part of the contract which the groups who were in a collaborative relationship with the Bureau signed.

Since she knew about the academy, she was also well aware of their general disposition, which oftentimes tended to lean towards arrogance. From the large number of students which had temporarily stayed under her group in the past, she figured there were three types of students in the academy.

The first type, which were the children of supers. Children of supers being supers too? It was this thing in the past which made her doubt if there was a way to acquire abilities.

The second type, ones which had been found by the Bureau from among the countless people all over the world. These two consisted of the majority of what existed in the academy.

The third type, which were extremely few, were a bit similar to the second type as in they were the among the common populace who were found to have ability. But the difference was that these were the survivors of a ghost incident.

The first two tended to be extremely arrogant, thinking of themselves as the chosen ones despite being repeatedly taught and warned about the ghosts. The third ones, having experienced going against ghosts tended to be more down to earth, but even some of those turn arrogant as they believe themselves to be extremely powerful after surviving against a ghost.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“Aiden.” Alastair replied. He was pretty sure Cordelia hadn’t even bothered remembering his name, else she would have immediately replied in anger.

Hellen’s nose scrunched up in annoyance. She didn’t want to deepen her relationship with the Bureau, be it positive or negative. Hearing it was someone on her side which initiated the things made it worse.

Just in time, she heard Lucas speak though. “It was you who insulted us. Made fun of us, falsely claiming Evander was dead.”

Scottus, who had an ice pack on his eye, immediately retorted. “I am speaking the truth. That trash put together a team at unexpected speed and immediately rushed here when he heard the news that there might be a powerful ghost here, which had managed to kill off an entire team of field agents.

“Rushing head first without any sense of cautiousness. Idiot. Only one person from the team, who was also the strongest, managed to come back alive. It isn’t Evander. You tell me, could he have survived?”

Hellen, Lucas and Aiden all knew something was wrong when they heard Scottus recount what had happened. Hellen didn’t miss that there was one more team which had been killed off. Neither the call agent which contacted her or Lucas had spoken about it, the latter’s agent had only told him about the team led by Evander which were killed.

The Bureau just sees us as discardable pawns.

It reminded her of why she ended the collaboration with Bureau. Look, they didn’t even consider telling anyone that there was a team of field agents which had been killed off. Or that maybe they were so beneath the Bureau that they forgot about them entirely.

That aside, the three of them were once again reminded of the letter which Evander had sent to Aiden. He knew of one of the ghost’s conditions. It was highly unlikely he was dead, even more so if he felt it was appropriate to write with his blood.

Aiden made a mental note to ask when the bureau’s team met its demise. And when did Lucas get the letter. He might be able to glean information about Evander from that.

He had received his own letter on the night of 28th feb, which was well into 1st march. That was when the blood moon was first spotted, and the next day the first murder took place. On the night of 1st march.

Lucas snarled as Scottus once again spoke of their big brother who was only trying hard to rescue Aiden. “You little shit. Aiden’s chest has been badly damaged by your ability. One more word from your crappy mouth and I wouldn’t just let you off with a flash in your eyes. I’ll cripple your eyes, make you really blind this time. Understand?”

“You think I’ll let you?” Cordelia snapped back. She had enough of this guy siding with mere ants. She couldn’t let him talk back to them, they were the top rankers of a prestigious academy. The only one which trained supers in the whole world. What would remain of their pride if every random super talked down to them?

Hellen had a headache as she looked at the mess. The cooperation was destroyed before it even began.

Just in time though, her gaze traveled to the kitchen, where the freezer had opened by itself and an ice pack was flying over to the living room. She knew whose work it was.

Perfect timing.