"We're going to be late." the girl, Sadie, said to her twin sister, Lila.

"Well I couldn't have left the house without putting on my make up." Lila said, trying to keep her skirt from flying up as they ran towards the bus stop.

"You should've done it on the bus." Sadie said in her usual hushed tone, almost to herself.

"I wouldn't have done as good a job on it, not that you would understand."

The twin sisters stopped in front of the small yellow sign. Printed on it, in bold white letters, was BUS STOP. It was about seven in the morning, and the wind was blowing. Sadie shivered, not because she was cold, but because it felt like something was wrong. She put her bag on the ground.

"Hmm?" Lila turned to look at her.

"That man." Sadie said in a quieter voice than usual.

"Where?"

Sadie nodded towards her right. Sure enough, there was a tall man. He looked to be in his fourties, late thirties. He had short black hair and very pale skin.

The mysterious figure was about three yards from where the two fourteen year old girls were standing. Sadie could tell he was staring right at them.

"This is ridiculous." Lila scoffed and advanced towards him.

"Lila." Sadie said, but she didn't hear her.

"I would like to know why you're staring at me and my sister." Lila announced, angrily.

The man didn't say anything, he just smiled a wide toothed, evil smiled.

"Did you hear me?"

There was a loud noise, and the man turned into a giant monster.

Sadie pulled a sword out of her bag, "Innocence, activate!" the long sword began to ignite with flames.

"Stupid Akuma," Lila frowned, "you actually thought I'd fall for that? With your complexion, you could have been a ghost. Have you ever considered foundation? Maybe a spray tan or something like that?"

There she goes, talking about make up again. Sadie sighed in her head. She jumped into the air, and sliced her sword right through the monster.

"Thanks." Lila said.

Sadie nodded, and sheathed her sword.

As any reminisces of the Akuma disappeared, the bus pulled up the corner.

Jace Halls paces down the long corridor, quickly. His wavy black hair, that ended under his ears, blew into his face as he passed by the air conditioning vent.

"Hey Jace, Khloe's looking for you." a boy sad as Jace walked by.

"Charlie, would you tell her I'm in the infirmary?"

"Chief, you're heading towards the laboratory."

"I know."

Charlie shrugged.

The fourteen, and a half, year old girl, Khloe Barry had been looking for him all day. She had a thing for tackling him. He couldn't understand how an unusually small girl like her could tackle a twenty year old man like him. Of course, she was trained in every form of fighting and self defense known to man, Khloe probably had some kind of weird inner strength...or something like that.

"Just go look for him in his office." Ella sad as she braided her shoulder-length red hair. Her blue eyes fixed on her best friend.

"I guess; I just really want to go on a mission." Khloe complained.

"Jace said he'd call you when had one. Akuma don't just go attacking people every second of the day."

Khloe brushed through her dirty blonde hair, "You're probably right. I'll be in the training gym until they do."

Karson lay down on the bed and looked up at the ceiling. He loved the sound of nothing except his breathing and heart beat. Peaceful quiet was what he longed for every hour of the aching day. For Karson wanted to be able to let down his barriers and still hear the silence. Ever since he became an exorcist for the Black Order, he had to fight to keep others' thoughts put of his head. It was all thanks to the stupid Innocence that had been in his brain since he was born.

The Innocence would never deactivate, so Karson could use his 'powers' whenever he anted. Lifting things with his mind, feeling others' presence, suppressing someone's will. He had been able to this his entire life, and he didn't mind. He didn't need or want to use them often. But still, the mind reading continued. Other people's thoughts still had a way of creeping into his mind.

I wonder if Karson's in his room. Charlie thought as he walked toward room 307.

"Come in." Karson said on the other side of the door.

Charlie frowned, "You can hear me through a wall?"

"Charlie, we've been over this; yes, I can." he sat up. His pure green hair was all ruffled.

"It's almost lunch time. I was just coming to see if you were going to come down now and or wait till later."

"Do what I always do and wait till everybody's gone."

Charlie patted down his unruly locks of blond hair, it was a habit of his.

"See you 'round, then."

"Hi big brother." his little sister walked over, her long braid of golden red hair swayed with every step she took.

"Shouldn't you be eating lunch?" Archer asked. His hazel eyes weren't even looking at her but the papers in front of him. Anyone who didn't know the Robinson siblings, would've been able to tell the were brother and sister of only two years apart.

"I'm not hungry."

"If you don't eat, you won't grow. You need nutrients; you;re a thirteen year old who's smaller than most fifth graders, Ella."

"I am not! Just because I'm the youngest exorcist here, doesn't mean I'm small."

"Sure, it doesn't."

"Give it back, you!" the boy ran after Khloe. He almost tripped because his light brown hair kept flying into his face.

"You'll have to catch me, Jakob!" Khloe said, grasping the beany tight in her hand.

Khloe, look out!" Jakob called.

Khloe ran right into Ryder Collins, the oldest exorcist at the Order. He was seventeen! When Khloe looked up at him, she could see the blazing anger in his ocean blue eyes.

"Why don't you two start acting your age? Someone's bound to get hurt."

"Surprised you're not, Khloe ran into you pretty hard." Jakob said, kindly.

"Of course I'm not. Now give him his hat back. Jace has a mission for you."

Khloe threw the beany at Jakob and ran down the hall, "YES!"

"You two must be Lila and Sadie Walker. I've been expecting you." the man said. He was very tall, both the girls had to completely look up to see his face.

"Who're you, exactly?" Lila asked in her sweet, but demanding, tone.

"I'm the chief of operations at the Black Order American branch, Jace Halls."

"Oh."

"Your rooms have already been prepared, and I have your uniforms. I just need to run a test to make you're both human." Jace scanned them both with something that looked like a metal detector, but most likely wasn't/

"We pass?"

"Quite! Now, if you'll follow me. We have much to see!"

He could feel the presence of her getting closer, but couldn't hear her thoughts. The one person he couldn't hear the thoughts of, but, when she was near, he could feel her pain. The stinging sensation centered on several points on his left arm.

"I thought you said you were going to stop." he frowned.

She looked at him from under her hood, "Stop what?"

He grabbed her wrist and pulled her arms towards himself.

She looked at him, nervousness pooled in her purple eyes.

Karson pushed up her sleeve. On her unusually white skin there were several cuts. They were fresh, he could tell. The skin around them was pink and puffy. Karson could feel the itches of pain she felt as he ran his hands over them.

Karson pulled her into the nearest bathroom and started washing the cuts.

"Karson, I-"

"Don't even bother to say you're sorry. You promised you would stop. Remember what happened last time? You almost died."

she turned away, not wanting to face the painful truth of his words.

"Brielle..."

She loved it when he said her name like that, full of pain and concern. Brielle knew she was hurting him when cut herself, not just because he could feel her physical pain, but because Brielle knew he loved her and couldn't lose her. She felt the same way.

"I'm trying." she choked out the words in less than a whisper.

"Obviously not hard enough. I don't want you to hurt yourself." he hugged her, "I love you."

She choked back tears, "I love you, too."

"Sorry, I'm late." Jace walked in quickly, "Two new exorcists showed up and I had to show them around."

"No problem." Charlie said, happily.

"So we have a mission?" Khloe asked, eagerly.

"Yes, of course. There have been Akuma sightings in Los Angeles. It's up to you two to destroy the Akuma and retrieve any Innocence that may be in the are." Jace showed them a map.

"I've never been to Los Angeles. Is it big?" Khloe inquired.

Charlie jumped out of his chair,"Definitely! If we're lucky, we might even get to save a few celebrities from Akuma!"

Sadie looked around, she'd never had a room of her own before. Her parents insisted Sadie and Lila share a room. Their parents looked at the twins like they were two halves of the same person. The two did look alike. They shared the same emerald green eyes, and cream colored skin. The only differences were that Sadie had red streaks in her hair, while Lila had silver, and Lila was two inches taller.

People didn't usually mix the two up. Sadie always wore t-shirts, jeans, and sneakers, while her older, by three minutes, sister wore blouses, skirts, and high heels. All Lila seemed to want was attention; all Sadie wanted was for people to ignore he, and, most of the time, they did.