Pepper and Alice follow.

Jared starts heading in a different direction.

Oliver follows.

On the subject of spirits, the problem may have gotten worse, but that makes our job easier. We want to eliminate all hostile spirits, and possibly lower the local population a bit, so if their less afraid to act up we don't have to look as hard.

Fair point Oliver. she looks at Jared and asks Your not coming?

Chase waddles with them on his crutches he considers pulling out his DS, only to remember it wouldnt matter, because its probably crushed in his pocket, and it was out of power anyway. "Yeaa, railing, no problem at all" He said with nervousness behind his smile at the information that his death was possible.

Jared turns around. He raises an eyebrow "Wait, you want me to come. I thought you made it clear you didn't want me in your house?"

Pepper turns to Chase. "Don't worry, I won't let you fall. Hear, you can borrow my DS. She passes a bright pink covered in flower stickers DS.

Jeanine looks confused Did I say that? I don't really recall, in any case if I did say something like that before, ignore it. You can come up!

"You sure...? Jared is genuinely surprised by Jeanine's response.

Chase is shocked to see Pepper offer him her DS to use, he didnt even know she HAD a DS. "uhmuh, yea, thanks Pepper, appreciate it." Nervously taking the DS chase looks at it as though Ophelia handed him a live bomb, with his one free hand he switches SD cards, but notices pepper already has the same game in "Huh, well go figure."

Yeah of course! You look absolutely exhausted she looks around Like the rest of us. We're going to have plenty of food and you can crash there for the night. Wandering around the forest at night is unnerving.

Oh hey Ryan! I battled this spirit earlier that is the same color as you. It tooled up here! Jeanine pulls out a pen from her pocket and throws it to Ryan.

Ryan instinctively catches the pen and his energy flares up around it as his eyes widen in horror. He drops the pen and his eyes start to glow...

To Ryan's eyes, its as though the forest has been flooded. Theres a foot of water covering the ground, and there isn't a branch left on any tree thats below a twenty foot line. Directly in front of Ryan's feet, theres a massive hole, and all the water is draining towards it. A slimy, rushing sound comes out of the hole, and Ryan jumps backwards fast, moving about fifteen feet away as a giant eel-like creature with the face of a sharp-toothed frog comes out of the hole, biting where Ryan's head was about a second ago. It quickly opens its mouth again and attacks Ryan's current location, but Ryan dodges to the side while its still moving and punches it under its eye, hard. It blinks angrily and opens its mouth and speaks in a chant. A breach of contract? Then its a fact that I get to act on my promise to devour you. That is our pact.

Jeanine looks at Ryan's look of horror. Oops! she says looking worried, Maybe that was not the best idea...

I didn't breach our contract. I haven't taken on another spirit. Ryan glares at the spirit, knowing that argument isn't likely to work. Another has tasted your aura, fool. There's no way that you can drop that tool. By touching it, you have broken the rule; You look tasty. I'm going to drool. The spirit opens its mouth and shows off its saliva. Ryan gags. I have no intention of feeding any more spirits. I don't want to end up with anyone else like you, after all. But if you consider what happened there to have broken our old agreement, how about a new one: I'll talk to whatever is in there, and use it when its useful, and if it tries to take more of my energy than you, I'll break the pen. And if it becomes fully corporeal before you do, then my body is yours to devour. That seems fair enough, as the original agreement was apparently too ambiguous as to what constitutes a breach. Besides, I let you feed constantly, even while I sleep. Do you think another spectral is likely to put up with your nonsense the way I do? Because it could be several more decades before you find another...
It seems we are in opposition... Very well. I'll accept your proposition, but should I find you in a position where your oath runs counter to your mission, you'll be the bait. Happy fishin'. Ryan rolls his eyes at the bad rhymes, and the spirits influence on the world fades away.

You okay Ryan? Jeanine asks as Ryan comes out of the Conference. I didn't mess anything up did I?

Jared gives a big grin at Ryan's predicament. He tries to hide it from Jeanine.

... It's getting dark. We should go. she says, tapping her foot anxiously.

This guy isn't exactly as casual as some of the ones you guys are used to dealing with is all. We aren't exactly friends. Ryan bends over to pick the pen back up.

As Ryan's hand touches the pen, it gives off forest green spectral energy. The energy connects and merges with Ryan's own flow and his eyes glow once again.

the forest around Ryan grows lush with color, light glows up in the sky with no visible soure. The ground becomes flat and perfect, the landscape is filled with floating teacups of various sizes.

Ryan sees a giant snake, A brilliant Green in color, wearing a monocle and a business tie. It has wrapped its tail around a cup and is sipping lightly.

"Oh, Hello. It is a pleasssssssssssure to meet your acquiantanssssssssse chap."

Ryan looks around and hides a bit of a smirk. Yeah, I'm sure it is. Listen, chumsworth, I really gotta keep things brief here. The fact is that the other guy doesn't like it when I talk to new kids, see? But he'll let me keep you on, with a few provisions. The idea here is that you get to feed off me less than him, and he gets to graduate first, and in exchange, you don't sit here on the forest floor in a pen for a century. Of course, if you don't end up being useful to me, I won't really bother with you anyways, so I hope you have a decent ability. You gonna accept that, or should I leave you here?

He spits out his tea. "Why you young upssssssssssstart!" The giant snake shakes his head. "Children today are increassssssssssingly rude. That issssssss not how you conduct a proper busssssssinessssssssss meeting. And you rather have that uncouth glutton freed before the pinnacle of gentlemenlinesssssssss before mya? You lack tassssssssste my young friend."

He turns and thinks. "If you address me properly, I'll lend you my ability, which is of courssssse a far sssssssssupierior ability then your current applicant. I don't mind waiting in here for a thousand yearssssssss. At leasssssssst here, there are no savagesssssssss that try to take your prime realissssssssstate."

"That'sssssssss better I suppossssssssse then jusssssssst moping around. I will allow you to usssssse my grand ability, my venom issssss yoursss sssssso long as you treat me with resssssspect. Oh, and next time, dressss for the occasssssssion."

The world fades to normal, Ryan feels a little disoriented, his head hurts a little as the spirits are not in sink but are not all out against each other, you do notice the pen has a green liquid droplet forming at the tip.