[Other FULL] [IC] As the Dust Settles; A RWBY RP [M] [EPILOGUE]

Groc · Mar 7, 2016

Brooke Webster, Reese Kells, Oswald Carotene, and Salazar Jones
Menagerie Sewers - Entrance

Team BROS gathered outside the Academy, near the entrance to an old water treatment plant. They were supposed to meet one of their professors before their mission, hoping for more information than simply "investigate sewer infestation".

Eventually, a pair approached them: Professor "Bullrush" Hauser and his assistant Carla. Bullrush went to the door as Carla stopped in front of the team. "Alright students, listen up! You're here to deal with an infestation of Grimm, and you'll be in an enclosed space. The sewers are a natural maze of storm drains and maintenance tunnels, so try not to get lost. You'll be facing a rare species called 'Snapdragons'. Remember your training, and..."

The Professor wrenched open the door, which had apparently rusted shut. "Bor-ring! They don't care about that stuff, Carla! I've seen them fight. They care about guns! And biceps! And ELECTRICITY!" At the last word, he tore the door off its hinges, dropping the heavy slab of steel to the ground.

"Now listen here, Huntsmen! Inside you're gonna find a horde of nasty, scaly beasts that would eat you as soon as look at you! So you outta fit right in, big guy!" He laughed as he pointed to Sal, but quickly got serious. "But seriously, reptilian Grimm are more vicious than most. Something brought them here, and they're pretty riled up! Clear 'em out, find out what got 'em so mad, and take care of it! Try not to die!"

"Yes sir!" shouted Brooke, standing tall with her weapon at the ready. Her expression was fierce.

"Don't worry, man," added Reese. "We can take some crocs no problem." Unlike Brooke, he was as relaxed as ever.

Sal scowled at the Professor's "joke", removing his jacket and tossing it aside. He didn't want the sewer water to ruin it.

Oswald took a step back from the entrance, looking at his teammates. "Why did it have to be a sewer? It's dark and dank and smells terrible..." Despite his reluctance, he prepared himself for the trip, sticking close to Reese.

"Get over it, Ozzy! Let's go!" Sal headed for the door, leading the charge.

And so, the four of them ventured down into the dark labyrinth. The growls of their quarry could be heard reverberating through the tunnels even from the plant's entrance. Their footsteps echoed as they walked, broken up by the sound of dripping water. Brooke activated her semblance and her armor began to glow, illuminating the area around them.

"Human sabotage suspected, huh…" Brooke said with venom in her voice. "Just how much more do they intend to hurt us until they're satisfied?" She wanted to charge forward, find the humans responsible for this and tear open their throats with her bare hands as soon as possible, but she knew that they couldn't afford to be reckless. She stayed at the back of the group to provide fire support if the others needed it.

Sal, on the other hand, had no problem being reckless. He took the lead, taking note of the surprisingly high ceiling. The halls themselves were barely wide enough for two of them to walk side by side (without wading through the water, anyway), but no one was in danger of hitting their head on the ceiling. "Something doesn't smell right..."

"We are in the sewers. What did you expect?" Ozzy spoke up from the back.

Sal snorted in annoyance. "I smell you, actually. And if I can smell us, so can they." He looked back at the others. "Those with guns, be ready to use them. We're not the only hunters here." He turned back to the tunnel ahead, just as a dark shape surged out of the water. The Grimm latched onto his leg, knocking him off his feet and dragging him under the water. Three loud splashes echoed through the hall as three more Snapdragons leapt out of the water, headed for the rest of the team.

Brooke reacted immediately to the creature attacking Sal, noticing its armored body and quickly switching the Dust canister in her gun with a practiced motion. However, she wasn't able to act in time to avoid the enemy that came after her. It dove for her lower half, intent on dragging her down into the dark depths from whence it came.

She braced herself for pain, but it never came. Instead she saw a blur of red jab into the beast, pushing it aside enough for it to crash into the wall beside her. "Don't thank me yet, brah," came Reese's voice. Brooke looked at him and saw him wielding his staff with the Snapdragon that had attacked him stunned on the ground beside him. However, it was already beginning to regain its movement and it had its sights set on him.

"Indeed," she responded, turning her attention back to her own opponent.

Ozzy reacted to his Grimm by leaping into the air, bouncing off the wall, and vaulting over the beast. "I'm sorry, guys! They probably noticed my fear!" He pulled a seed out of a pouch on his belt, his hands glowing green. The Snapdragon spun around, lunging for him, and he tossed the seed into its mouth. The Grimm snapped its jaws shut as the seed touched its tongue. Ozzy's hands continued to glow,and a similar glow emanated from within the creature's closed mouth. Vines erupted from between its teeth, tying its mouth shut.

"Don't worry about it, Ozzy, it's all good!" shouted Reese as he dodged an attack.

Another splash echoed through the hall as a Snapdragon erupted from the water. It slammed into the wall, followed by a metal hand on a chain. The hand hooked onto a steel bar protruding from the wall, and Sal emerged from the water as the chain retracted. He landed feet first on the Grimm's back, face twisted in fury. "YOU!" He stomped on its neck. "BIT!" He punched it in the head. "ME!" The Snapdragon rolled to the side, knocking Sal off its back and sending him to the ground. It lunged for him but he managed to roll aside, grabbing it by the tail.

Brooke watched as her opponent readied itself for another attack, and knew she was at a disadvantage at close range. She couldn't go making flashes on a whim when it risked blinding her allies as well. For the moment she envied Sal's form, unprecise sausage fingers and all. She debated using the new weapon she'd created over the past few days, but she only had one and she wasn't sure she wanted to waste it yet.

"Reese, I need some space!" she shouted as the Snapdragon lunged at her again.

The monkey Faunus had his own opponent to deal with, but he always did what he could to help out his bros, regardless of the situation. "You got it, brah!" Reese said, kicking off the mouth of his own opponent into the air before landing the end of his staff into the face of Brooke's foe. With the push of a button, it fired a powerful round into the foe, its sheer force pushing its target back while at the same time propelling Reese back over to his own opponent.

Brooke took her chance immediately, firing on her foe as it recovered. Confident in its armored hide, it charged through her rounds. However, it quickly began to slow, and before long it was being pushed back, unable to force its way through a barrage of Brooke's heavy-impact Gravity Dust rounds. It forced a reduced fire rate and the bullets themselves travelled slower so ordinarily they weren't too hard to dodge, but here the narrow walkways worked to her advantage.

The creature's bony plates began to crack and chip under the blows until the Snapdragon decided to change its approach by diving back into the sewage. Brooke redirected the light from her armor to focus on the water. This time she would be ready for it.

Ozzy seemed oblivious to his teammates fighting around him, focusing solely on the Snapdragon before him. His eyes were squeezed shut in concentration as his hands glowed green, the vines keeping the beast's jaws shut glowing the same color. The vines continued to grow, now completely covering the Grimm's head as it flailed desperately. It tried to slip back into the water, but vines extended from its head and wrapped around some exposed pipes, keeping it from moving away. "You're not going anywhere!" Ozzy finally opened his eyes, pulling his shovel off his back.

The rabbit boy darted forward, delivering a powerful sliding kick to the Grimm's side. It thrashed about, nearly tripping him with its tail. With a flick of the wrist, he deployed the shovel head, slashing with the sharpened edge. Although he wasn't doing much damage, the beast instinctively tried to roll away in its blind panic. With the vines keeping it pinned, it merely succeeded in exposing its stomach, presenting a prime target for Ozzy's shotgun. He quickly loaded a solid slug into his weapon, firing at the Snapdragon's soft underbelly. It thrashed in pain and anger, prompting Ozzy to pump more shells into it until it disintegrated into black smoke.

Still holding his Grimm by the tail, Sal struggled to his feet, dragging the beast away from the water. He fell back, using his momentum to lift the Snapdragon up and over his shoulder, slamming it back first onto the ground. He shifted his grip as he leapt to his feet, swinging the Snapdragon into the wall hard enough to break off several bricks. He swung it again, smashing it belly first against the floor. With it dazed, he leapt on its back, forcing its mouth shut with his bare hands. It shook its head, snarling in rage, and managed to get its mouth open.

Sal grabbed its jaws, the upper jaw in one hand and the lower jaw in the other, forcing them open. It struggled, black blood seeping from its mouth as Sal tore flesh, until he snapped its lower jaw with a resounding *CRACK*. The Snapdragon tried to crawl away, but Sal hoisted it into the air, lifting it above his head. He dropped to one knee, bringing the Grimm down and breaking its back over his knee. The Snapdragon dissolved into smoke in his hands, leaving him out of breath from the effort.

As Brooke watched the river of sewage beneath her, she began collecting the light emitted by her armor over her right hand, and it wobbled as she shaped it into a disc. The Snapdragon emerged without warning, approaching from the side this time. Brooke immediately used her Earth glove to harden the light into a stone shield, and the beast's jaws clamped around the edges. It pressed down, the weak stone already beginning to crack under the pressure. Fortunately, Brooke didn't need it to hold for long.

Brooke jammed the barrel of her gun into the Snapdragon's throat and fired, the powerful rounds causing a sickening, wet crunching sound as they tore apart its innards. Chunks of the stone shield broke off, but before the whole thing could crumble the Grimm fell limp, promptly dissolving away in a cloud of black smoke.

Sighing in relief after such a close call, Brooke looked around to see if any of her companions needed help. However, she saw that Sal and Ozzy had already finished off their foes, and Reese's foe was motionless, impaled on a large stone spike sticking out of the ground. Reese grinned as his foe dissolved, turning to Ozzy and saying, "Man, this would have gone a lot faster if I knew these things had soft bellies! Thanks, brah."

The dog Faunus looked at her team with her mouth agape before closing it into a scowl. She didn't like the thought of her having had the most trouble with her enemy. "Anyway," she said, trying to change the subject and forget about this incident. "We should get going. Though it is a bit strange."

She aimed her light at the river of sewage once more and listened closely. "Finding these guys so close to the entrance, I thought maybe the sewer was overflowing with these Grimm. The mission briefing made it seem like that was the case as well. So why aren't there more? If they really smelled Ozzy's fear, shouldn't we have gotten a big swarm?"

Sal turned slowly, smelling the air. He walked with a slight limp, still recovering from being dragged under the water. "I don't think we're alone. Something else is down here with us and the Grimm. Look at that." He gestured to the exposed pipes Ozzy had tied his Snapdragon to. "The wall's broken here. As an expert on punching, I can safely say that something broke it recently. Within the past few days."

Brooke hadn't noticed anyone else's scent, but now that she focused she could faintly make something out. Unfortunately, the rank stench of the sewage was scrambling her senses. "It has to be the humans responsible for this," she concluded, bloodlust in her voice. "Can you find a trail or anything?"

Sal grumbled, crouching to get a clearer smell from the floor. His sense of smell wasn't as strong as Brooke's, but he wasn't as bothered by the sewer smell. Living in a swamp had its advantages. "There's something... watch my back. And keep Ozzy at the back. His flower scent is throwing me off." Sal kept low, moving forward on his hands and knees.

Ozzy scuffed one foot on the ground, letting everyone else pass him. "I'm sorry. It's an herbal mix to reduce stress. Makes it harder for Grimm to notice me..."

Brooke walked beside Sal, her gun trained on the sewage in case there were any more surprises waiting within. Reese patted Ozzy on the back reassuringly before following behind the pair and letting Ozzy trail behind. As they travelled there was an eerie silence, but soon enough the sharp eared girl could hear distant thuds and crashes. It sounded like combat.

Ozzy's rabbit ears twitched toward the source of the noise, and he reloaded the spent shells from his shovel. "I think you guys were right. Sounds like someone else got here first..."

Sal didn't hear it, but he trusted his teammates. And the trail led down another tunnel. "There. See the rubble? Something got slammed into a wall pretty hard." A hungry grin spread across his face. "It must've been a good fight. Come on!" He picked up the pace, eager to find whatever was causing all the ruckus.

The group continued until the tunnel opened up into a massive, cavernous area where various other tunnels met, pouring their contents into a vast noxious pool. Thick pipes were scattered around to pump the sewage from the well elsewhere, but the most noteworthy thing about the area lay in the center. There stood a concrete plateau several meters wide, connected to some of the tunnels by catwalks, and on it was a lone man facing a Snapdragon.

The man lifted his fist and drove it into the Snapdragon's skull, breaking right through the Grimm's thick mask as if it were cardboard and causing the concrete underneath to crack. It was in that moment that Brooke was able to see the shirtless man's back, covered in jagged, overlapping, plate-like scales. She stared, eyes wide. "A… Faunus?"

He turned to the group and grinned like a hunter who'd finally caught his prey.

Sephear · Mar 12, 2016

Victor Strossen and Luna Niemandsluft

Letting blood lead to bloodletting

"What exactly do you two think you're doing?" A voice boomed loud enough to make Victor and Tatiana both stop in their tracks as they were about to clash again. When they skidded to a halt Victor couldn't fight off his smile, he loved it when a girl was breathless because of him, not that he was doing much better. The intruder was one of the teachers, a faunus with a longer-than-average neck, a graceful, lithe head, rings around her eyes, and two small calcium-rich nubs on top of her head. Victor guessed she was a Gazelle Faunus, and she was quite lovely for a teacher, perhaps.... "You troublemakers have completely missed orientation! Do you even know who your teammates are yet?!" Perhaps not...

Tatiana and Vic looked at each other with a mix of shock and concern, though Tatiana seemed more regretful of their sparring being interrupted than missing orientation. Victor on the other hand was mortified. "We did?!?" His ears flattened and his tail drooped, but he only let it continue for a moment before he perked back up and regained his charming smile and relaxed expression. "I can tell you we're both very sorry, we just wanted to help pass the time until orientation, but we must have gotten carried away, we were having so much fun."

The gazelle looked back and forth between the two students and her expression softened to a disappointed frown as she shook her head. "All right, off with the two of you. Go find the team postings and meet your new teammates."

"But we just-" Victor and Tatiana began simultaneously.

"No buts!" The teacher interrupted before grabbing Tatiana by the scruff of her neck and dragging her out of the room, leaving Vic staring after them in disappointment.

So much for that bit of fun...I've made such a productive start to my school term. The downtrodden Fox grabbed a towel from the edge of the room and began to wipe the sweat and dirt off of himself when he left the room. He was still trying to clean up while he strolled through the academy's halls, but had yet to notice a small gash on his forehead thanks to it being too shallow to sting any more than the rest of him, or for the blood to trickle down onto his face.

"Where? Where, where, where, where! Dammit! Where?" Coming down the hall opposite of him was a female student. Her fists were wrapped in spiked chains and she appeared to be less than approachable. The majority of other students had already gone to class, but few still roamed the halls - either lost or getting to know their new teammates. The Girl would stop every few steps, tilting her head back and violently sniffing. She looked into every windowed room and jumped in front of every student which passed her along the way.

The few students which had been hanging out in the halls either turned away or ran from the girl after they had noticed or encountered her. Vic however had no idea where to go at the moment, and instead continued walking forward disregarding the behaviour of his peers. As the two faunus grew closer to each other, the girl began to slow down to a stop. She looked into a room on one side, and then peered into a room on the other before resting her eyes on Vic. 'It's you. It's... you." A smile crept across the girl's face as she let the chains which were wrapped around her hands down to dangle and brush the floor. Getting down into a sort of sprinter's stance, she closed her eyes and took in a deep breath before hurdling herself towards Vic.

Left with only an instant to react, the fox only had time to pull the towel off of his face and widen his eyes considerably, torn between the reflexes to dodge and to catch a girl before she can hit the ground. In the end, he just stood stock still until she crashed into him, letting out a pained gasp as he hit the floor. "Oof! Ergh...hello, have we met?"

"Do you always stop to talk in the midst of battle?" The girl replied quickly as the she clenched her fists and lifted them above her head, readying to slam them down on the boy's chest.

"Battle?" Vic questioned. When the girl raised her fists her victim's tail bushed out underneath him and a bust of frightened adrenaline allowed him to roll her over and get a better look when he loomed over her. "I wasn't aware there was any battle, here I thought I was making a new acquaintance. We might be better off with some formalities first, like for instance-"

The girl cut him off in the middle of his speech by headbutting him, causing him to fall backwards. "I don't need formalities. I can smell it. Your excitement. Your fear. The stench of dried sweat and crusted blood on your skin. I can tell. You love this, however you may be trying to worm your way out of it. I didn't notice your scent at the orientation, meaning you only just battled recently. All I want, is," the two rose to their feet and the girl quickly rushed up on Vic again, beginning a flurry of punches, "to smell you bleed!"

Victor managed to block or duck away from most of the punches, but a few landed solidly and the ones he block definitely didn't feel good on his already-battered arms. As soon as he found an opening he spun away from the girl and pulled Carolyn off of his back. "I prefer not to bleed, even for such a well-built girl." Before she could strike at him again he dashed away from her through the halls, looking through each door he passed that was open or had a window until he saw another big open area that looked like the room he'd sparred with Tatiana in. And as soon as he was sure he dived in through the open door and readied himself in the center of the room, twirling Carolyn with one hand.

"Coward! Where did you go?" The girl lumbered through the halls searching for him. She hadn't been built for moving at such speeds on land, being more of the type to stand and throw punches until either her or her opponent passed out. After a few minutes she finally caught up with Vic in the room he had chosen. "There. You. Are. Hold on. Give me. A second. To catch my breath." The girl standing in front of the fox was breathing heavily, bent over and shaking her head. "You know, I had to jog all the way here. I really don't appreciate that." After the girl had collected herself she let out some more slack on her chains and then bunched part of them up in her fists. "Are you ready to stand and fight like a man now?"

"Of course!" Victor called with a sly smile. "I just like to fight like a smart man instead of a dead one, Carolyn's not suited to hallways full of collateral." He spun his two-headed halberd once more and leveled it at the girl, who's extra rows of razor teeth he'd finally noticed. "You should still tell me your name though."

The girl turned sideways and twisted her body, wrapping the chains around it. "I am Luna; and your weapon cannot hurt me." The girl began to spin around quickly, holding tightly onto the chains and moving in towards her prey.

Vic couldn't do much aside from testing her claim without putting a fellow student at more risk than he was comfortable with, so he merely ran at Luna and thrust powerfully. "Let's see if you're right!"

The blade glanced off of Luna's skin and was returned with repeated lashings of the girl's spiked chains. "Your attacks are meaningless. There's no emotion behind them. If you do not fight to your fullest potential, I will kill you. We are beast men and beast women, therefore we must not only strive to follow the morals of humanity, but also follow the logic of survival of the fittest. And if you refuse to survive... I will have no need for you on my team!"

"Team?" Victor questioned while he barely managed to fight off the whipping chains.

"We fight first! Do not lower your guard!" Finally after pushing the opponent back a few steps, Luna pivoted, stopping her spinning in one direction and reversing it to the other. One of the chains wrapped around Vic, and the girl quickly grabbed onto the end of it pulling them tight against his body and digging the points into his skin.

Vic grimaced in pain at the spikes puncturing his skin, he was starting to get really tired of the shark girl's attitude. "I don't need anybody telling me how to fight!" He gasped out painfully before Carolyn moved on its own and slammed into Luna with far more force than his earlier thrust.

Both combatants went flying in opposite directions as Carolyn clattered against the ground in the middle of the two. Luna looked between the weapon and the man and then turned her back to leave. "Such underhanded tactics... I don't believe I can work with you. I'll be going to the headmaster to talk about this. As much as I'd love to see you bleed..." the girl shook her head. "Goodbye."

The fox boy shook his head and blocked the door. "No less underhanded than tackling someone in the middle of a non-combat area with absolutely no warning, don't talk to me about cowardice. You started this, now you have to finish it." Carolyn flew back into his hand and he readied her. "I don't think I'll have a problem with holding back anymore."

"If that's so then let me see what you truly have. I have nowhere else to be kid. Come at me."

Khawill · Mar 13, 2016

Music
Team Theme
Battle

Team GAIN in: An Escort Mission!
I shake the hand of the cart driver, "My name is Archer, leader of team GAIN, the one with the glasses is Gaige."

Gaige waves his hand, "It's a pleasure to meet you."

I point to Ilexa and Nina, "That one is Nina, and that one is Ile-" I stop, "No wait, that one is Ilexa, and that one is Nina." I glance back and meet their hostile stare, "We're uh, here for the escort mission."

The man laughs, "My name is Cartman, you look more like a group of kids on a field trip than guards for my supplies."

"Is that your real name?" Gaige asks, looking at him quizzically.

"Nope." The man laughs. The two of us chat about the mission and the trip we would have to take.

Meanwhile, I hear Ilexa ask Nina what we were doing here, "Didn't you listen to Archer? He said our mission is to get this cart safely to some town."

"That is so boring, I want to hunt grimm." Illexa whines.

"Yeah me too." Nina says. I look back and see that they are hanging off of Gaige who is politely trying to get them off him.

"Are you sure your group is qualified for missions?" Cartman says quietly to me, "It's important that this delivery is made."

I laugh, "Your cart will make it safely to Lumen, they wouldn't send us if we weren't qualified right?"

"Yeah I suppose not." He says, stroking his beard, "Well let's get going then." He says getting in the vehicle.

"I'll cover the front of the cart, Illexa and Nina you watch the sides, and Gaige I want you to scout ahead, if you see signs of trouble send us a text." All of us get in position, Gaige running ahead of us into the trees. The four of us get moving.

"So are you a Fauna?" Cartman asks me as we walk a few hours.

I shake my head, "The feathers are just a weapon."

"I see." He says, "And what do you think of them?"

"Fauna?" I say, shrugging, "Well what's to think, they're people as far as I'm concerned. I think they got the rough end of the stick though."

"Can't argue with that." The man says, "Need more people like you, and less bigots."

"Yeah but may-" My phone vibrates, Gaige signaling trouble for us, "Get in the back of the cart and wait inside until I call you out." I say to the man.

"Aye." He says, climbing in the back.

I answer my phone, "What is the threat?"

"A pack of sixteen beowolfs" I hear him reply, clearly moving quickly, "They are splitting up, this isn't good."

I spread my wings, "Nina, Illexa, sixteen beowolfs heading our way, Protect this cart at all costs."

"Got it." Illexa calls, I hear her tear a branch off a nearby tree.

"Yes sir!" Nina calls, I look back and see she brought her metal pole.

A moment of silence comes before Gaige breaks the treeline, he stops in front of me and turns around, pulling his gun out and shooting a grim that leaped out after him, it is knocked back into the brush. "Gaige, protect the back of the cart!" I say, but he had already begun running there. I draw my sword, grim surrounding us on all sides. I dig my feet into the ground.

Illexa makes the first move, swing her branch down hard on one of the grimm, killing it. Immediately things go into chaos, with all of the grimm charging in at once. Gaige tosses his bag to Illexa, and she pulls out a handgun, switching positions with Nina so that she can grab hers. "Don't let them touch the cart!" I yell, cutting down a charging grim. Three more sit in front of me, pouncing at me. I expel feathers from my left wing into one of them, stopping it mid air, and I block another with my right wing. The third one connects, biting my arm as I lift it to defend myself. I slam the hilt of my blade into its head, forcing it off of my. I call my feathers back and launch myself into the air, spreading my wings at the peak and raining a volley of feathers down on the three grim, injuring them gravely. As I land kick down on one of the grim, killing it. The other two charge at me and I block them with my sword, pushing them away. I charge forward immediately, taking my advantage and cleaving one of the grim. The final one manages to catch me off guard, and disarms me. I call my feathers back and swarm them all onto the grim, inflicting a large amount of damage and killing it.

Meanwhile Nina is dealing with her share of grimm. With a roar the four of them charge at the cart. Nina sweeps her pole with an unnatural strength, knocking them all back. They focus on her, but she's already charging at the closest one, killing it with a massive blow to the head. A grimm leaps from behind, but Nina smiles, switching places with her sister who counters the attack. Illexa continues the fight from where Nina left off, launching the grimm away with a swing of her branch, breaking it. Another grimm charges at her, but she easily fires a few rounds from her handgun, killing it as it charges towards her. She discards the broken branch and clenches her fist, the remaining two grim flank her from both sides. One charges at her, and then the other. She takes the delay between them and closes the distance on the closest one, she nimbly dodges it's attack by sliding under it, firing shots into it's stomach, though taking a few scratches. The final beast closes the distance, swiping at her. Ilexa grabs the grimm's arm and throws it over her. She runs up to it while it is down and shoots it several times.

Nina continues Illexa's fight, her pole stabbing into one of the surprised grimm after the switch. The final two charge at her, but she reacts accordingly, swinging her pole at one and using the motion to block the other. She jumps up, stabbing downward with her pole onto one of the grimm and burying the pole deep into the ground. Unable to get it out, she leaves it, using it as leverage to lift her body to avoid the last charging grim. She drops to the ground and pulls out her pistol, firing at the charging grim until it dies, just at her feet.

Gaige takes dust that allows his semblance to take the elemental affinity of earth. A glyph below one of the grimm in front of him appears and the head of a stone serpent appears, chomping down on it and killing it. The head remains on the field unmoving, out of range of the other grim, but between them and the cart. One of the grimm charges and Gaige intercepts it, redirecting it toward the serpent with a kick, the serpent consuming it. He makes the next move, charging at one of the grim, firing at it with accurate shots. The final grim swipes at him, but he anticipates the obvious attack and blocks it with his gun, holding the other claw with his hand. Slowly he begins to push the grimm toward the serpent, wrestling it toward the jaws of death. The grimm sinks it's teeth into Gaige's shoulder, but he continues on, and eventually the serpent consumes its third and final grim. Gaige laughs tiredly, and passes out.

From the trees there is a mighty roar. Ilexa, Nina, and I group up. "It sounds pretty big." Nina says excitedly.

Jay · Mar 13, 2016

Gorilla Grimm

Tenerus rose his sword just in time to catch the massive blow of the huge creature they were facing. The Grimm was unlike anything they had ever faced during training. It resembled a Gorilla and seemed to have the strength to boot... as Tenerus began to grind harshly through the dirt, his heels leaving visible trails behind him as he skidded, barely maintaining his stance. His aura flowed around him a little more intensely than usual as he did his best to keep the attention of the massive beast through taunts and cries.

They had progressed from the beach into the jungle, when this large creature had beset upon them. It had an intimidating mask and piercing red and orange eyes, but its most dangerous and prominent weapon were it's massive white and red fists, covered with the durable plating some Grimm were known for, Tenerus knew to try and watch out for direct strikes from the brutish clubs when the Grimm used them to tear down multiple trees between itself and Team STLL.

The fauna in that place was insane. Grass as tall as Tenerus himself, massive trees that spiraled upon themselves, covered in moss of varying shades of green, red and purple. Huge, head sized flowers upon thick, wood like stalks, the flowers themselves came in most eveyr bright and vibrant colour imaginable and their pollen seemed to glow with a strange vibrancy as it danced about the air... creating small pockets of colourful miasma. The leaves upon the tree tops were not any different from those of a normal bay tree, perhaps a bit more jagged around the edges... and coconut fruit grew beneath these green appendages as in some places they were thick enough to block out the sun. Team STLL had been headed towards the mountain when they stumbled into this clearing, only to be spotted by the enormous beast before them. A gap in the trees gave a clear view of the sky and mountain and it allowed a piercing beam of light to force it's way inside the shaded jungle glen, illuminating the surrounding and dispersing some of the coloured lights in the thicket.

"I'd expected something as large as you to pack a little more power! Don't tell me you're all flab and no muscle!" Tenerus knew the beast couldn't understand a word he said, but the negativity and wait flowing from his words stirred something in the Grimm beast, comprised of nothing but the negative emotions of humanity... spouting such bitter comments seemed to bring the Grimm's attention to him like a magnet while the others got in position. He sprinted forward and swung his sword in an Arc, glancing the massive Grimm's next aggressive punch by glancing it with his blades flat side and redirecting the blow to the ground below, swinging the sword further along the arc he sliced through the large Grimm's side and it released an aggravated roar as it turned, thick black blood spurting from the wound and matting its thin layer of fur.. Tenerus was still recovering from the attack and would've been crushed then and there.

If that hadn't been part of the plan.

"Back... OFF!" Liara came in launching from the side, using her steam dust she leapt through the air and gave her weapon the heft and force of a small automobile as she smashed the blunt "edge" of her sword directly against the Grimm's head and mask. There was a satisfying crack noise as the right side of the face plate splintered. The gorilla grimm was knocked back, stumbling to the side and rolling over, right into position. Sullivan whom was perched in a nearby tree jumped down. "Haaaaaaaa!" He forced as large a shockwave as his semblance would allow downwards, forcing the massive creature to lower its head, Sullivan then landed on it's back and made a quick and rough slice across the beasts neck, the thick black blood spurted too from this vital spot and Sullivan groaned as he used a burst aided jump to leap backwards.

"These shoes were new! For the love of-ugh! knew I should've worn something less formal to a jungle..."

Sullivan fell to his knees and drifted along the ground before spinning in place to catch another rage filled fist, he was knocked off of his feet and landed as best he could beside Sullivan.

"Yet you didn't." He spoke with a tired grin, trying to keep spirits high even in desperate times.

"Well hey it's not my fault I wanted to look as cool as you guys do!... Oh my! Moving time!" As the gorilla charged forward for another lunging strike, Sullivan sent a burst of kinetic energy into the ground between he and Tenerus. The force threw both of them to opposite sides and their large foe was suddenly unable to stop its forward momentum... as it crashed harshly into a tree. The already splintering mask cracked and shattered in places and that familiar thick, black blood began to seep out softly. The beasts movements were more sluggish now, but what seemed like an easy kill could often catch you off guard. Tenerus was no stranger to combat... even before Beacon. He had fallen into the leadership role naturally during their months of training and as far as he could tell, none of his fellows had ever seen real fighting, although Lucinda had adapted shockingly quick.

Speaking of which, she had been standing upon the side of a nearby tree, using her gravity manipulation to her advantage, awaiting her chance to strike. Finally it arose, as the beast sluggishly moved towards Sullivan once more, its back turned and wounds exposed to Lucinda's accuracy and deadly efficiency.

"Target... vulnerable." She leapt from the tree and a dark green swirl of energy surrounder her form as she went from leaping to falling, gravity alternating around her body as she literally fell sideways towards the gorilla grimm, her twin blades shining like fangs as she drove them into the open wound upon the beasts neck. "Hyaaaaaahhh!" Using the momentum from her sideways fall she broke into a flip, pulling the huge hairy beast over her head, gravity allowing her to gain an illusion of great strength as she twisted her blades and spun, smashing the beast headfirst into the ground, quickly shifting once more, she landed on the ground once more. The huge creature stumbled to its feet... only for a blast of energy to push it sforward, as Sullivan attacked from behind. It was too dazed to realize that it was being knocked forward into a swinging uppercut from the steam fueled blunt edge of Liara's weapon. It was launched backwards from the untimely blow, completely losing its balance, it's mask shattered as it was utterly defeated... but there were no chances taken, Tenerus dealt the final blow, rushing forward, raising his blade high and slamming it down into the creatures exposed face. There was no blood spurted, as the creature instantly faded to shadowy dust... blowing away in the wind.

It was done.

"...WOOO!" Sullivan cried, pumping his fist into the air. "That was so awesome! We're badasses!" Tenerus smiled awkwardly as he sheathed his blade, scratching the back of his head with a sigh. "Yes, i suppose that went rather well. All that training really paid off."

Liara took a cloth from her pockets and began brushing the blood off of her weapon, which quickly cracked and turned back to dust on contact. "I suppose... we can be proud of that one." Sullivan waltzed over to her and wrapped an arm around her shoulder with a grin, much to her distaste. "Oh come ooon Liara! That was the coolest freaking thing ever! We're practically pros."

Liara wasted no time driving her elbow upwards quickly into Sullivan's jaw, causing him to bit his tongue and stumble back in a whimpering motion. "Owowowow...." Liara simpled hmmphed and brushed the last few specks of blood from her weapon with a pompous expression. "That variety of Grimm wasn't in our text books, so we can't very well judge its power level now can we? For all we know it was the weakest sort on this island. Being cocky will get us killed."

"Caution... always advised." Lucinda spoke up, sheating her weapons and standing close beside Tenerus. She always did that, she shadowed him... he felt like she was always there, watching his back when she could be.

That had lead to an awkward situation that on time he was about to get in the shower, but thankfully they had set some boundaries up following that.

"Aww... you guys are just party-poopers!" Sullivan exclaimed after recovering, raising his sword he pointed towards the mountain in the distance. It was clear to see... and their seemed to be a rusty orange speck on a plateau about half way up the ascent.

"Hey... didn't I read something about a mission to reclaim crates? Or something?"

Tenerus rubbed his chin pensively and thought. "Aye, I saw that... but it didn't really seem our style. We were too... high energy... to recover some lost cargo."

"A valid observation I'd say..." Liara input. "However, we might be able to meet up with another team there, exchange information... and since it's a plateau it'd be a nice spot for rest. A full climb straight from bottom to top would be exhausting and a waste of energy otherwise regained."

"Liara... Good point. Tenerus... your choice?" Lucinda spoke as quietly as ever, she tilted her head inquisitively as she looked up at Tenerus, awaiting his decision.

"It seems like a good plan to me... we climb as far as the plateau, wait there by the crate until another team arrives or until we're ready to progress... and then we head to the top and get this beacon placed. Clear?"

"Aye sir!" Sullivan said with a grin and salute before taking front and walking out of the jungle glen they had been fighting in. Liara gave a silent nod as she followed him and Lucinda smiled contently as she stayed behind Tenerus, whom fell third in line.

***

They had been climbing for what felt like forever when Tenerus, whom had strode ahead to the front of the group, stumbled awkwardly onto the high rising plateau. Sure enough, there was the large metal crate. It had been visible thankfully, from down the mountain... as the rusty orange colour made it easy to spot against the pale white stone of the mountain range. It was a bit taller than Tenerus and about twice as wide. The same coloured moss from the jungle was growing in a few places... and there seemed to be water damage, presumably from rain.

"Guh... gah... this is it huh Ten?" Sullivan asked, between panting breaths. He put his hands on his thighs and bent over, taking deep breaths of air to counter his exhaustion. Liara and Lucinda sat on a rock nearby to catch their breath. Tenerus himself, thanks to being partially cold-blooded, hadn't generated as much heat and as such hadn't needed to sweat. His muscles were tired, but they weren't nearly as pained as the others.

"Seems that way... hmm, I wonder..." Tenerus, brushed some rust and dirt off of the container and found an access pad, pushing his finger to the touch pad, the device re-activated. It seemed that the cargo container was definitely of human make as the level fo technology present was too expensive to be used for shipping containers in Faunus occupid areas. Completing its activation protocol the door to the cargo slid open... and inside there was...

"A bunch of cards?" Sullivan asked, a little bit of disappointment in his voice as he perused the contents of the cargo. A bunch of green access... or identification cards bearing the Vale logo lined the inside of the crate. About 70% of them were broken from the impact of the lost cargo and a large portion of the ones that weren't cracked or smashed seemed to be covered in that same colourful moss that perpetuated the island. "A bunch of cards indeed." Tenerus stated plainly before turning from the cargo.

"Well, no matter, it hardly applies to us. I'm gonna go check on the girls. Close that up won't you Sully?" Sullivan nodded in response to Ten's words and waved him off before focusing on the box.

"What a bunch of useless junk... I guess I'd hoped to find something worthwhile..." He frowned somewhat and looked back to Ten and the others with a sly sparkle in his eye.

"I could do with a souvenir of our first mission now that I think about it... and most of these are broken so, they'll hardly miss another." Quickly reaching for the top row of card, Sullivan pulled one out that seemed to be in pristine condition. One of the very few remaining without a scratch... with a gentle chuckle and a grin, he carefully slipped it into his pocket and pressed the touch panel to close the crate. Once done, he turned with an innocent whistle to walk back towards Ten, Liara and Lucinda.

It was time for some much needed rest as they waited for the other team to arrive.

Sephear · Mar 14, 2016

Victor Strossen, Luna Niemandsluft And all of Team Level C

Learning to be patient(s)

"Just try not to leave me too disappointed!" Vic shouted, running at Luna and striking with an arcing, spinning slash from Carolyn that clashed against her chains before leaping above and crashing down with an overhead strike containing all of his strength and Carolyn's weight.

The ground beneath Luna's feet cracked under the pressure, but Luna was nowhere near finished yet. If he was truly serious now, then this fight had only just begun. The girl lowered her guard and sidestepped in a single motion before catching the falling Vic with a double handed punch to the ribcage. The man went flying, and Luna rushed after him, readying to continue on with a flurry of blows.

Victor landed surprisingly nimbly and pointed Carolyn at Luna as if he was readying for another thrust but once she was nearly too him Carolyn's spearhead opened up and fired one of the high-caliber shots directly into her. Predictably it wasn't enough to stop her, but it staggered her enough that she had no time to react with Vic swept her feet with Carolyn and prepared to smash the hammerhead down onto her.

Luna fell hard on her back and stared up at the hammer that was swinging down at her. With plenty of time left to react, she simply smiled wildly and took the smack to the chest. But instead of crushing her into the ground as it should have, Vic was propelled into the sky with a force strong enough to knock the wind out of him. Luna rose to her feet and leapt up into the air, bringing her fists up behind her head and slamming them both down as hard as she could onto Vic's back, sending him flying back down to the ground with nearly as much force as that which had sent him up.

A loud thud signaled the success of the shark girl's next attack. Her victim lay stunned for a moment, ear twitching, until at the last second his tale bolted straight as he regained his senses and shot from the small indent he'd made in the floor right before she landed. He shook his head, scattering scarlet droplets from his now-bleeding-much-more forehead. "You're pretty good, but I've been through too much to lay down and die now!" He charged straight at her and when he was near her he began to spin in a flourish with Carolyn, using Sybil Anima to greatly increase the dual-halberd's momentum before slamming into her chains again.

Luna's eyes floated to the clock above the entrance to the room as the little fox spun around. "Nearly the afternoon already." She smirked and then put her eyes back on the man as blade clashed with chain. "It was fun, but we really should move on now. I accept you." In one swift motion the girl spun around, wrapping her chains around both weapon and wielder before pulling them both close into her body. With this, it was over. The girl put all of her remaining strength into her legs and pushed off the ground causing it to crack beneath the force. The two rose up into the air, nearly touching the ceiling and then Luna threw the package down at the ground. Treating Vic as a yo-yo, before the chains had unwound even halfway she yanked it back up and dove straight into the man's stomach. Throwing them both towards the ground.

However, the fox once again made use of his semblance, mentally pulling Carolyn against the chains to flip them and land with Luna on the bottom. The move was definitely a finisher, but despite his clever attempt Victor's physical strength paled in comparison to Luna's, and they were both down for the count.

---

It wasn't until several hours later when the two finally awoke to find themselves in a shoddy looking medical room. Two curtains and three beds, all of which were occupied. Luna was already sitting upright and in the middle of messily chugging a gallon of water, ending up with the majority of it over her gills and soaking her tank top. A girl sat in one corner of the room with a book in her hands. She was almost as large as Luna, but seemed much more reserved than the former. She looked up from her book to notice Vic looking towards her and she closed her book before signing something that the fox couldn't quite figure out. The girl rose from her seat and handed the man a note that had his and Luna's name on it, as well as a Lana and Carolyne. The girl pointed over to the bed in corner that was opposite from where she had been sitting and then pointed down to the name of 'Carolyne'.

Victor scratched his head for a moment, but soon his grogginess cleared a bit more and he nodded. "So, that girl is Carolyne, quite a coincidence there. And which name is yours miss?"

The large girl stood there for a moment, suddenly seeming the slightest bit shy, then she pointed to "Lana" on the paper. Victor couldn't help noticing the way she seemed to always position herself to hide her arms when she wasn't using them for something.

"Not one to mince words are you?" Victor asked. Lana simply nodded.

"And that must make the bloodthirsty sharkgirl Luna." Victor stated absently, rubbing the bandage on his forehead.

"Hmph. And you smelled so good too. The way that blood trickled across your forehead... how it sprinkled across the ground as we rushed at each other." Luna started shaking slightly and wrapped her arms around her self. "Oh that scent... if only we weren't meant to be together I could..." the girl let out a slight giggle and followed it up with a snort and then quickly grabbed up the pillow from her bed and began to tear it apart in between muffled moans.

Victor scooched the opposite direction of Luna a bit and yawned. "So, we're the team...it's nice to meet you Lana and you too Luna, that fight did end up being a bit of fun. I hope Carolyne wakes up soon, so she can introduce herself properly."

Lana looked worriedly to the bed in the corner. 'She not wake up. Been 4 hour. Lana only clap.' The girl lightly touched her fingers together and her head sunk in to her shoulders as she winced. 'Lana no mean hurt Carol. Lana only fight school. Lana.' The girl's hand gestures slowed to a stop as tears began to form in her eyes. 'Lana no mean nothing by it. Lana want be friend. Lana sorry. Lana sorry. Lana sorry. Lana. Sorry.' The girl rubbed her eyes with her massive forearms and went out into the hallway.

The bushy-tailed patient tried to get up and follow his teammate before he even realized what he was doing, but he never even managed to stand before one of his ribs spasmed and he fell back into the bed. "Ack! Luna...you hit hard." He muttered painfully before dabbing at a reopened cut on his arm.

Iceshadow3317 · Mar 15, 2016

Titus - Cinna - Robin - Pastel
Faunus Academy

Dark... so dark.... and then light as he opened his eyes with the sound of footsteps. His sight were gifted with the image of a female fox faunus. Her smile was full of joy and happiness. Her eyes were closed as she continued to smile, her ears popping up out of her redish pink hair, drooping over her head.

"Titus! I figured you would be here!! Get up lazy bones! It is our day to scout for the pack!" The girl said with an angelic voice, at least to his ears.

"Cedar... Why so early..." Titus asked.

"You really are lazy." She said, her eyes opening to reveal cedar leaf colored eyes. Her name came from the color of her hair, which was the same as the heart of a cedar log and her eyes were as green as a cedar's leaf.

Titus laughed and got up. They walked through their lands for a long time. The water was a dark endless torrent as it roared down its path in which they followed.

"How about here? This should be a good spot!" Cedar exclaimed in excitement.

"Looks good!" He agreed, as they both walked toward a tree, side by side.

He loved looking at the fox. He loved it even more when they were alone together like this. Nothing could ever stop them from being best friends, inseparable by any force.

However, her face slowly got darkened and finally there was nothing.

________________________________________________________________________
Titus woke up as light filtered through one of the windows, bouncing off something shiny and into his eyes. This over joyed him. He didn't want that dream to play in his mind again.

He was usually last to wake up, due to the fact he was a wolf, and he was used to a nocturnal life for the most part. Good thing was, he never had to worry about over sleeping. He would either be woken up by someone talking, or arguing between the girls. He yawned and stretched out, tail wagging. He thought for one moment, he actually woke up on his own, but then... an argument shattered the peaceful morning and he let his head fall back to the pillow.

"You know the rule, Robin! I was the first to wake, therefore I get the bathroom first." Cinna insists, her clothes folded over her arm as she stands in just sweat pants and a tank top. Robin is inside the bathroom, door half open and arguing her case.

"It's not my fault you took too long to grab your stuff."

Cinna stares, bewildered. "Robin-"

"Why don't we ask the guys?" Robin pokes her head out the door to address Pastel and Titus. "Who gets the bathroom first?"

"Don't care, getting food." Pastel replied as he lazily got out of bed. "Ask Titus."

Titus walked by Cinna who was at the door, and walked into the bathroom, pushing the door open with Robin behind it. He turned toward her, picked her up from behind, and placed her outside the door. He walked back in and and shut the door, locking it. He would be using the bathroom first this morning. He didn't want to have to pee outside again because the girls argued.

"This happens every morning... So this time, I'm first this morning ladies." Titus half yawned, starting to take care of his own business, which would only take a few minutes.

"Heh, serves you two right." Pastel laughed.

Cinna swats at Pastel's shoulder. "Just because you're always last to get up." She goes to their mini fridge and grabs an apple for herself and another for Robin.

"It's been a month and you two still haven't noticed the bathrooms downstairs. There's a reason why I don't fight over the bathroom." He winked, slammed the door and headed down the stairs.

Titus hears Pastel say something about a bathroom downstairs and the door slamming, "Maybe this wasn't the best idea." He muttered to himself, taking his time, afraid of leaving the bathroom. He washed his face, to try to wash away the dream from his head, but it would never truly leave.

He's so dead. Pastel thought, laughing.

Stinging Bea · Mar 15, 2016

Jairo & Sahn Xill

Mira Cullous Nel Phelia

Team JSMN
Swarmed

Mira wiped the sweat off her forehead and cut through another low-hanging vine with her katana. "God... This place is hot..." she wheezed. Right behind her was Nel, followed by Sahn who had Jairo on her shoulders. The jungle was indeed extremely hot and humid, and the thick underbrush - which somehow bloomed despite almost all the sunlight being blocked by the the taller trees - made it extremely hard for them to travel. The incessant cacophony of every kind of bird singing, screeching and cawing only added to the feeling of the overwhelming amount of life the island supported.

"I'm exhausted already." Jairo complained mockingly, and readjusted himself on his sister's shoulders. Neither of them were sweating much - being for the most part cold-blooded. He heard Sahn mutter a frustrated curse, and patted her lovingly on the head. "I can endure it, though." he sneered.

"Yep, everything should be just fine," Nel replied. Despite the hot and humid environment of the jungle, the hawk faunus seemed to be fairing just fine. In fact, she was practically skipping along the path that her team was walking through, humming a small tune in the process. She quickly hopped a few steps in front of Mira and gave her fellow bird faunus a quick, thumbs up. "Just relax. Don't sweat it~"

Mira let out a small, desperate sigh filled with anger, fear but mostly discomfort, and pulled out her now almost waterlogged notepad from her bag, which had gotten wet from all the extreme humidity. She looked at the faded estimated map of the island she had drawn a few days prior, and tore out the page in frustration.

"This piece of scrap is useless. Nel, you've got great eyesight, don't you? We need an actual reference point to move around this island." she said, tossing away the page.

"So, like... You want me to go make a new map or something? I'm not exactly a master artist, you know?" Nel replied.

"No, for web's sake. You get up there and try to figure out where the silk we are, so we can get what we've come here for." Jairo hissed, pointing upwards at the trees above them.

Nel looked up at the tree and then back at her team. "Sure, no problem. I've been looking to branch out anyways."

Nel made her way towards a nearby tree and began to shimmy her way up the various branches of the trees. Normally, she would have used her semblance to help make the trek up a bit easier, but she figured that conserving some of her energy for later would probably be a bit more beneficial for her team, just in case they were forced into some confrontation. It did not take the hawk faunus too long to reach the top branches of the tree, and just as Mira would have wanted, it was high enough to give Nel quite the view of the area around them.

Nel squinted just a bit, getting a really good look at everything thanks to biology. "I can see a big lake ahead if we keep going in the direction we are! There's a bunch of trees too, but we should probably leaf them alone!" She heard an audible groan come from below her. Placing her hand against the tree, she leaned forward as something else had caught her eye. "...Hey, Mira! Did the academy make this a double-team mission?!"

"Uhm... I don't think so..." Mira muttered to herself, confused. "What? no! What did you see?" she shouted back.

"Well, I saw another plane up ahead!" Nel answered. She quickly began to climb down the tree to rejoin her team as she spoke. "Four people jumped out of it too! You know, kinda like we did only with more... finesse!"

Sahn shuddered at the mention of their landing, causing Jairo to be moved from his rather comfortable seating position. "Probably just another mission for all we care. We barely got told what the other teams would be doing anyway." he said, shrugging.

Mira, however, wasn't as indifferent. "This isn't good... There's a chance the humans sent some of theirs to gather what they dropped..."

"So... What do we do? Try to find it, grab it and run before they do?" Nel questioned. A small smile graced her lips. "Maybe we could give them a warm welcome...?"

Mira shook her head lightly. "Let's just... try to avoid them. It's for the best, whoever's side they're on." she said, perplexed. "So what did you gather up there?"

"I spotted something shiny over in the direction of the lake... Maybe it was the crate we're supposed to be looking for," Nel answered. "I imagine making the crates steel or something would make them more durable in case something like this happened. I also saw another one near some mountains waaaaaaay farther ahead. Kinda orangey-looking, too."

"Well then, I suppose we should go there." Mira replied uneasily, as she readjusted her weapon on her back.

"And get out of this webhole." Jairo commented.

"Sounds like a plan!" Nel cheered. "By the way, does it strike anyone else weird that there's a lake in a jungle?"

Mira blushed at the fact she'd overlooked this abnormality. "I mean- I guess so... This island hasn't been charted yet though, so maybe it's one of a kind. Which doesn't sound too good for us, since we have no idea what to expect..."

Jairo chuckled and waved off her concerns. "Nature's just like women. Don't try to understand their logic." he said, before realizing that all three of his teammates were indeed women.

Nel smirked, having a small chuckle at Jairo's comment. "Yeah, I get what you mean. A quick jab from the smallest member of the team..." Her eyes narrowed as she glanced over her shoulder at Jairo. "Speaking of which..."

As Sahn tried her best to hold back her laughter a loud 'ahem' interrupted the group's fun. "Guys, let's try and get this over with as fast as we can, please. This jungle is giving me the chills." the leader of the team instructed, and the group began heading into the heart of the jungle towards the lake.

-----------

"Nel, are you sure it's this way?" Sahn asked, swatting away one of Jairo's arms which was dangling in front of her face.

Nel, who was now leading the group in their hunt for the lake, turned to walk backwards and gave Sahn a quick nod. "Of course! I saw it with my own eyes! Besides, have I ever steered you wrong before?" All three other group members opened their mouths to say something, but collectively decided not to bring it up again. A few more minutes of walking later, a noticeable reduction in the undergrowth of the jungle could be seen, and the soggy soil soon began giving in to sand. Team JSMN finally exited the jungle and reached a large, treeless clearing, where the strange lake was. It seemed as if a chunk of the ocean had been torn off and thrown into the heart of the island. Not too far away, a fairly large crate sat half-buried in the sand and covered in dead vines.

"I'm guessing that's what we came for." Jairo said, hopping off his sister's shoulders as they approached the pseudo-beach.

"Good thing we found it before anyone else," Nel replied. "It'd be a pain to track down if someone decided to steel it." The crate itself was fairly simple-looking, with an emblem representing the kingdom of Vale on the side.

Jairo spat on it as he approached it, muttering a curse. To his surprise, the crate seemed twitch ever so slightly as he did so. "Did you see that?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

Mira walked around the crate cautiously, trying to find a sort of release or opening system. "I don't trust this... Can you hear it, Nel?" she asked, turning to her fellow bird faunus.

"Something's inside the crate," Nel responded to Mira. Her voice was calm and serious as she made her way towards the crate, something that seemed to complete counter the relaxed smile on her face. "Some kind of buzzing sound... Either this isn't the crate we're looking for or something else got in here before we found it..."

"Well, only one way to find out." Jairo shrugged as he pulled out his weapon and fired a round at the big lock fastening the top of the crate. The rusty lock easily broke off and fell to the ground. Leaving the top completely unsecured. "Well, nothing's come out yet, so I guess it's n-"

He had no time to finish his sentence. An enormously loud shriek suddenly burst the top of the box off, knocking Nel and Jairo onto their backs. An enormous swarm of tiny black, white and red creatures began pouring out, flying into the air; their deafening buzz drowning out even the sound of the jungle.

All members of team JSMN watched in horror as more and more of the insects flew out of the box in a neverending stream, joining the increasingly large swarm above them. The black mass was so condensed with the creatures it almost seemed like a single entity, pulsating as it grew larger and larger over their heads.

"Everyone get back!" Mira shouted over the noise, pulling out her weapon and extending it to its full length.

"What the bloody web are these things?!" Jairo gasped, shakily getting on his feet.

"They must be some sort of Grimm!" Mira replied to his surprise, her enhanced hearing allowing her to hear him over the buzzing.

"Better bee on guard then!" Nel said with a grin. The hawk faunus pulled her razor rings to the ready, eyeing the massive swarm that was overhead. Despite the situation looking absolutely deadly for the team, Nel seemed to be having an absolutely delightful time, as if the whole mission was some sight-seeing tour while she was on holiday. "Something tells me if they start attacking, it might sting a bit~"

"This is strange though, every time I've read about swarming Grimm they were said to have leaders..." Mira's voice trailed off. The outpour of bees had stopped, and the swarm was now complete, with all members buzzing angrily but not actually attacking. The crate where they had come from began shaking violently, as if something was desperately trying to get out; causing it to immediately burst into pieces, sending large, sharp pieces of metal flying at all four members of the team. In the middle of the rubble, a shadowy figure, almost as large as the crate itself, stood motionless as it tested its wings. It opened its eyes, and let out an even louder shriek than the first one.

Jairo groaned as he barely dodged a rather sharp piece of metal, cutting his unprotected stomach, followed by another even larger piece knocking him on the head.

Nel stared up, her eyes focused on the buzzing bees. She glanced over her shoulder at Jairo. The hawk faunus gripped her rings tighter. "Well... Looks like we're still okay!"

Without warning, some of the swarming bees suddenly dove downwards towards Nel. The shorter of the two bird faunus barely managed to roll out of the way, Quickly regaining her footing, Nel shot forth a quick, sharp, cutting blast of wind towards the bees, trying to blow them away from the team. She grinned as she looked up at the bees, seeing that they had somehow managed to stay together. In fact, it seemed that all Nel had succeeded in doing was making them even more angry.

"Uh... whoops... Looks like I blew it, huh?" Nel questioned, glancing over at Mira as she spoke.

"Sahn! Grab your brother and let's-" Mira began, but stopped as she screamed in pain and clutched her arm, instinctively swatting at it. A tiny black, white and red bee fell to the ground, leaving behind it a nasty sting and a tiny bead of blood on her skin. "Get back, get back!" she screamed, hurriedly rolling down her sleeves. "Expose as little skin as you can!"

"Did they send us to pick up these things?" Nel asked, pulling her own sleeves down and then pulling her hood up and over her head. "It's almost like a suicide mission or something..."

Just as Sahn picked up her unconscious brother, the swarm suddenly began to shift. It was slowly splitting into three, each in every member's direction. The giant bee suddenly let out another shriek - this time, a series of short, co-ordinated cries - all while buzzing its wings loudly, as if preparing to take off. Almost immediately after the swarms dived down at the four faunus - ramming into them like giant buzzing, stinging boulders, and covering their entire bodies. Sahn grunted in pain as she felt thousands upon thousands of stingers pierce her skin. It wasn't long before she realized the bugs were pulling at something, trying to wrench her brother out of her arms. Hesitating to call for help, she turned painfully to look at her two teammates.

Nel was on her knees, gritting her teeth as the bees repeatedly began to stab their stingers into her back. The smallest of the females on the team was not having an easy time dealing with the wave of pain rushing through her body with each stab that was delivered to her back, the bees literally pulling some skin off of her back as they would pull out. Nel tried her best to shoo them away somehow, swinging at them blindly with one of her razor rings, but all that did was cause one to dive right into the hawk faunus' hand instead. Mira was not doing too well either, her clothes doing little to stop the swarmer Grimm biting and stinging at her face and hands and going up her sleeves. As she collapsed to her knees, she glanced over at the lake that was not too far from where they where.

"Get... to the... lake!" she managed to croak, before screaming in agony as more Grimm continued to swarm her and sting every exposed piece of skin. Using her semblance to help herself get up and blast away the bugs on her now reddened face, she turned to Nel. "Nel... your semblance..."

The hawk faunus nodded quickly. She gathered as much air as she could into her hands, using it to quickly blast the attacking Grimm away from her as far as she could. Nel knew that she did not have long before they would all be back on her, so she scrambled up to her legs and started to make a run for Mira and Sahn. All the while, the air around her began to shift, the hawk faunus obviously still making use of her semblance. She grabbed hold of Mira, practically dragging her behind as she made her way towards Sahn, who was still busy trying to pry her brother away from the bees.

The spider woman muttered a curse as she punched at the air with one arm, trying to get rid of the bees around her. In this single moment of weakness however, she felt a powerful force wrench Jairo out of her arms and slam her in the face, causing her to topple backwards. Nel quickened her pace to reach Sahn. Using one last burst of energy, she managed to grab hold of the tall woman's arm. Nel was starting to feel like she was going to be sick at this point, the consistancy of which she had been forced to use her semblance was starting to catch up with her. Still, the hawk faunus remained focused on her task of getting her, Mira, and Sahn to safety. Mira and Sahn both felt a sudden, rapid push of air as all three girls were rapidly launched fowards and away from the attacking bee Grimm. Before any of them knew it, they were quickly met with the cold, refreshing splash of being dove into the lake that Nel had spotted earlier.

After a few minutes of coughing and splashing, the three faunus managed to regain their senses. Slowly, a pool of tiny black specks began to surface around them, with tiny legs twitching slightly before turning to black smoke. "Is -cough- everyone safe?" Mira asked, coughing as she tried to stay afloat.

"I'm great!" Nel replied, the hawk faunus grinned as she splashed up to the water's surface. Despite her expression, she was starting to look somewhat exhausted. It was clearly a side-effect from having to use her semblance powers almost non-stop since they left the airship. "I'd say we made a pretty big splash with this mission so far, huh...?"

It was clear that one of them was missing. Back at the shore, the remaining swarm had regrouped, and were now forming a protective ring around their massive leader, and were pulsating once more as they had before the attack. It almost looked as if their numbers had doubled, despite their recent losses. The giant bee was holding none other than the unconscious fourth member of team JSMN. Jairo's stomach wound was still bleeding profusely, and the bee appeared to be wrapping him in thick a thick jelly-like coating.

"Jairo's- wait, where's Sahn?" Mira asked, looking around in confusion at where their teammate had been just a few moments ago.

Mere seconds the later, the large figure of an infuriated spider woman could be seen bursting out of the water and leaping up into the swarm, her hair now completely loose due to the water. Sahn let out an enraged roar as he threw a punch at the 'wall' the insects were making with their own bodies. The impact of the blow shattered the barrier easily, sending the Grimm flying and turning most to smoke instantly. Following the attack the swarm regrouped, now focusing on protecting their queen - who was almost done wrapping up its prey. Sahn threw another punch at the swarm once more, her first disintegrating the bees as it traveled - straight towards the queen's mask. The red and white chunk of bone split with a satisfying crack as the spikes on Sahn's glove made contact with it, causing the bee to shriek in pain and drop her captive as it fell to the ground.

Giving the creature no time to rest, Sahn let out another roar and followed its fall, putting her foot on its stomach and using all of her (considerable) weight to piledrive the Grimm into the ground. Once on the ground, she grabbed hold of one of its translucent, flailing wings with her teeth, tearing it right off and spitting it aside as she grabbed the Grimm's leg and began flailing and slamming it around to destroy whatever was left of the swarm until nothing remained of the beast but a cloud of black smoke.

Nel, who had been gradually making her way back to shore with Mira, let out a small whistle as she watched her teammate finish off the Grimm. "Woah... Why didn't you just do that from the start?"

-----------

"Why were there hundreds of Grimm inside a supply crate?" Sahn asked as the team rested around the now empty crate, tending to their wounds in whatever way they could.

"Bloody spitting humans." Jairo croaked weakly, slowly readjusting himself on his sister's back.

"I... I don't know." Mira replied hesitantly. The concept of humans using a biological weapon on anyone was too horrifying of a concept to think of, and she couldn't bring herself to believe it. "It was... probably some accident, or they must've gotten in the crate after it fell."

"Speaking of which, we haven't gotten jack silk with this one. At this rate, we're going to come home empty handed." Jairo commented, still woozy from the forceful injection of Grimm-mucus he had gotten.

"The whole situation does kinda bug me..." Nel chimed in. The hawk faunus was laying on the sand and staring up at the clouds, all while trying to do everything in her power to stay awake... which really was not working well. A small yawn escaped her lips as she closed her eyes, her voice getting very quiet and groggy sounding. "...Kinda blew through the whole mission up to this point... though... should... catch up... fine..."

The faint sound of Nel snoozing soon filled the air around them as the hawk faunus finally gave into the fatigue that was calling her name.

A joint post of Foxrally and Frozen Heart

Khawill · Mar 17, 2016

Music
Battle

Team Gain in: An Uphill Battle!

We hear the roar again, and I realize that it is getting closer. "We need to intercept it away from the cart." I say, running into the forest. Ilexa and Nina follow behind, running ahead of me. We intercept the massive twelve foot on all fours alpha beowolf, the twins making contact, working together to stop the charging beast. The beast slows down, but continues to push them, surprising me. The two of them work together to throw the beast's weight to the side, slamming it into a tree.

"How strong do these things get!?" Ilexa exclaims, "The two of us combined should be more than enough for some wolf."

I look at the beast, covered in spikes, "They get bigger with age, this one could be pretty old and experienced." The beast stands up, recovering quickly, "Don't bother fighting it head on, we just need to keep it distracted!" I take out my phone and call Gaige, two rings and the cart driver picks up, "Head straight for the town, the three of us will meet up with you there."

"Are you sure?" The man asks. "What will we do about more Grimm?"

"Throw water on Gaige, he's probably faking being passed out." I reply. The beast stands up and roars, "Just go, and call me when you're clear of the trees." I hang up, putting my phone away. "Nina, Ilexa, we need to keep this thing distracted until the cart leaves the forest."

"We can totally kill this thing Archer!" Nina says, "There's three of us, and that thing is all alone."

"I bet the two of us could beat this thing on our own." Ilexa laughs, fist bumping Nina, but their inattention causes Ilexa to be launched away by the charging grimm. Nina and I watch her fly away, and Nina gets angry.

"Ilexa!" She screams, slamming her metal pole into the enemy, breaking it. The monster rears up to swipe at her, but my reactions allow me to block the swipe with my wings, knocking me back into her, forcing us into a tree. I feel pain course through my back as it slams into the tree, and the weight of Nina's body slamming into mine. We collapse off the tree, and I know my wings are malfunctioning.

"Nina are you okay?" I cough. I'm on all fours trying to spread my broken wings.

"I'm fine." She replies, standing up, holding one half of her now broken pole. "Do your feathers still work Archer?" She says, taking on a serious tone.

"Yeah, dust is still getting to them, I can use my semblance." I say, standing up, "I don't think they will do much to this thing though."

"Give me your blade." She says, looking the beast in the eyes. The grimm gazes at us, preparing to attack.

"Why?" I ask, "We should be running right n-" I feel a sudden sharp pain in my stomach as Nina quickly, almost instantly, jams her elbow into it, drawing my sword with her other hand. I drop to my knees as she charges at the beast. The beast swipes at her, and she stabs it's underbelly, but is swiped away by the claws. "Nina!" I cough, as she is slammed against a tree. I can see blood running down her body, soaking her clothes. She hesitates for a moment, and stands up weakly, prepared to make another attack. The beast, while wounded as well, is much more ready to continue fighting, and I can tell that it is certain of our deaths. Get up. I think to myself, You haven't reached your limit yet. I struggle to my feet. The beast begins to charge at Nina, sure to kill her. I force myself to run, determined to keep my teammate alive. I intercept the two of them, directing my feathers to push Nina aside, and then come back to me, as I take the full brunt of the beast's charge. My aura protects me just enough to keep me from passing out, but I can feel my body refusing to cooperate. The beast rears in for one final swipe to end my life, and I accept my death, closing my eyes.

I feel myself being quickly picked up, and air rushing over me. When I open my eyes, Ilexa is carrying me on her shoulder, with a battered and unconscious Nina on the other. Ilexa's eyes burn a dark red, a sign that she is in overdrive, and I realize that Nina is dying. "Don't worry sis." She says, tears in her eyes, "I got you." I can hear the grimm's roars in the distance, Ilexa moving at an incredible speed. We get to the edge of the forest, and she collapses, her power drained. Nina and I fall to the ground, but I'm the only one conscious. I struggle to get up, willing my legs, my arms, or even my hands to move, but I know I'm on the edge of blacking out. I force at least my hand into my pocket, pulling out my ringing phone and answering it, but I pass out before it even passes my waist.

Sonata · Mar 18, 2016

Carolyne Bjork - Goat Faunus

Location: Mysterious Island(?)

The members of Level C had been following the human team for several days now. Their instructor seemed jittery but allowed his students to take out the grimm that they had encountered. So far so good it seemed. Level C hadn't been noticed by students or teacher and they were nearing one of their secondary objectives. They'd still yet to see any real threat however, or the use of any filming equipment.

The humans made begun to make their way into the cave system, but their mentor stopped at the entrance and turned around. Carol felt as if the woman was staring straight at her... but that would have surely been impossible since they had made sure to adequately distance themselves from the targets... The woman shook her head and then also went inside the cave system. A few minutes passed and then the team closed distance on the cave's entrance.

Some words were spoken then, but Carol's mind seemed hazy. Everything sounded distant and muffled, as if she had plugged her ears with cotton or perhaps truly was so far ahead of her fellow teammates. She tried to listen more intently on what they were saying, but as she did so their voices seemed to only drift further away. All that she could think of at the moment was the way that woman had stared at her. Could she have known they were being followed? Or was she just ensuring there weren't any grimm around to follow them down for a surprise attack?

Either way, something was off and Carol could sense it. They had to get into these caves as quick as possible and figure out just what it was. The group seemed to be following behind her... weird. Even though she couldn't make out what they were saying she could hear both their breathing and their footsteps... unsure of what to make of it all, Carol opted to simply ignore it and continued to walk.

The human team had left a trail. Every several yards or so it seemed that one of them had been placing notches into the walls in case they became lost or disoriented. Carol clung to the walls of the cave, feeling for every new notch to ensure that they were actually on the right path to finding this other team. It seemed like they'd been following for hours already, and still yet they continued to follow for several more hours until they heard the clacking of stone against stone.

One of the humans apparently trying to start a fire it seemed. Didn't they know that making something that big and bright would only attract more grimm? Stupid. It seemed that the instructor was saying something, but just with her fellow teammates Carol couldn't make out what it actually was. She stared the teacher down and attempted to read the woman's lips, but when she did - to her great surprise - the woman's lips detached from her face all the while still moving as if she were talking, and then crawled onto her back so as to be out of sight. The woman's eyes darted over to where Carol was and then widened.

The sound of screaming echoed from behind where Team Level C was hiding. Someone had been left behind, but who was it? Carol looked around at the other members of the team and only just realized that the only one whose face she could actually make out was Lana's. The girl stood there with a dark expression on her face before grabbing Carol's arm and pulling her from where she stood. The gorilla faunus took off like a cannon down one of the many offshoot paths within the cave system.

Carol looked behind to see who was still following and why exactly they were running like this. She made out the form of a scrawnier man, barely even half the size of Lana but just barely seeming to keep up.And even further back behind him was a gross mass of muscles in a way too small tank top. The man in the tank top was holding back a large Grimm that seemed constricted in the tiny space allotted by the cave structure. But Carol and Lana along with their twig-like friend had made it out to an open area with no apparent escape other than up.

Lana rushed at the wall of the room and dug in her beefy hands attempting to scale the wall, but just as she had began to make some progress another loud scream was heard from below the two. Carol looked down at the entrance to this open area and saw the mass of muscle just barely jump out of the way of a monstrous Grimm that turned out to be even larger than Carol could have imagined. Four wings, two giant tusks and standing on two legs with talon-like feet that dug into and crushed the ground beneath it... this monstrous chimera was unheard of in any of the textbooks she'd read...

As the creature exited the tunnel from which it had came it spun around and slammed its fist into the ground at the entrance, causing the tunnel to collapse and the wall which Lana and Carol had been hanging from to shake the two loose. When the dust from the impact settled Carol could make out five extra figures. There was that woman, along with her four students. The monster in the middle and the members of Level C on the other side, it seemed all hope was lost for whatever side the creature turned on first.

And then the unthinkable happened. The grimm raised its arms and angled its wings, propelling up through the ceiling. The cave burst out in all directions, sending boulders and pebbles alike flying across the jungle as it snapped its wings out to a full span. Lesser grimm began to drip down from its body hitting the ground around the two teams. Bears, boars and bats surrounded the two teams, the odds even more against them now than ever. Lana, the other beefcake, the twig, all of the humans and that mysterious woman who kept staring at her readied themselves for whatever came next.

The giant chimera landed on the ground outside, crushing a large part of the forest before digging its massive hands into the ground beneath the cave. The entire room shook and then became detached from the rest of the cave system. The chimera grew larger and larger until its eyes seemed as large as the entirety of its body first had. The cave began to tilt as the grimm threw its head back and pulled the cave up towards its mouth.

An evil cackling echoed throughout Carol's head and then the human instructor was there in front of her. Dozens of cameras had been set up around the room and her hands were filled with vials of dust. The woman's mouth which was still on the back of her head changed into a smile and whispered something that the faunus girl just couldn't quite make out. Everything began to slow down to a near halt as the woman threw her arms forward, realeasing all of the vials at the chimera's face. As it happened, each and every camera began to go off. Carol reached out for the woman in front of her and began to scream out to her, to beg her reconsider.

The room slowly became filled with a bright white light as the chimera's tongue reached in through the ceiling and wrapped itself around the human instructor. Carol shot up from her bed in the nurse's office. The white walls around her made her head ache. She looked around the room slowly taking everything in, realizing that it had only been a dream. Lana was there next to... the twig person? And at the doorway there was the beefy... woman? Carol's head began to hurt even worse the more she tried to make sense of it all.

"Lana... my journal... where is, my journal?"

The girl shot up and rushed hastily over to the corner she had been sitting in. The girl quickly shut the diary back before turning around to hand it over to its owner.

"Thank you Lana.... I had a dream... I need to write about..."

Lana's face turned grim, having read the entries of the girl's diary she knew her secrets. Perhaps she knew things that even the book's owner didn't?

It's me again. Second time today, I know. I had another dream. This time... I don't really want to remember it. Even though some of my dreams have been bad before, I don't ever think I've had a nightmare quite like this one. Lana was there, apparently along with the rest of my team which is around me now having just woke up. We were following some humans in a strange jungle. There was also a cave which we followed them in to. Everyone was talking, saying things I couldn't hear or understand. It was scary, and then we were running from... something... something big, something that I don't think should have existed. I'm scared. For once in my life, I'm hoping that my dreams don't come true. I don't know what to do. Leifr, I'm afraid. Not for myself, but for my team and for those humans... they all seemed so helpless... I never want to be in that place again... I hope when these tears stop falling I'll be able to look back on this and find some kind of understanding in it... but for now, this is all I have to tell. I don't know. - Carol

Groc · Mar 21, 2016

Team CAOX - Cassandra Alexandra, Azreal Marjori, Orion Romanov, Xyra Coronis

Beacon. It had been Xyra's home for a month now, and she was sad to leave it. Only temporarily, of course, but she was getting sentimental nonetheless. She had learned a lot about the world, a little about herself, and she was being sent off to learn even more.

"I think I left my spare film in the dorm. I should go back for it!" She tried to run back into the school, but Azrael was having none of it, teleporting in front of her. "We haven't even gotten the cameras yet! Quit being such a little girl, and come on! You're gonna make us late!" He grabbed Xyra by the arm, trying to drag her toward the airships. Xyra let herself be pulled along, silently swearing vengeance.

With loud creaking footsteps, Cass marched past them, nudging the two as she blasted by. "Keep it up, Azrael. It's bad enough we are on picture taking mission. So I don't intend to take more time than we need. Do I make myself clear, Xyra?" Cass snapped as she boarded the airship. She didn't wait for a response. Honestly, she didn't want one. The mission was nonsense, and wasted the woman's skills. Cass was a fighter through and through, and her capabilites, as far as she was concerned, were second to none. She was optimized for combat. Not photography.

Another pair of feet stomped, but they were more gentle. "Don't pay mind to her. Captain is cranky. Doesn't like mission," Orion spoke with his heavy accent. "It will be fun!" Orion took Xyra from Azrael and placed the small girl on his shoulders. "Now let's go, ya?"

Deciding that being carried was much nicer than being dragged, Xyra lets herself be drawn in by Orion's enthusiasm. "I'd prefer if we didn't have to go to an island in the middle of nowhere, but sure! Just... let me take pictures before Cass kills the Grimm, okay?"

"I try," Orion said, knowing that would probably be incredibly difficult, if not impossible considering Cass' poor attitude at the very moment.

Azrael rolled his eyes, teleporting onto the airship beside Cass. "It's gonna be one of those days, huh? How'd we get stuck with those two?" He gestured specifically to Xyra, who was obviously enjoying the piggyback ride.

"My understanding is that it was a lottery and we probably lost the draw," Cass muttered as she took her seat, buckled herself in before shifting into a very closed bubble. Her arms were crossed and legs tight to her body. The frustration changed into disappointment. Azrael's words stung if only because they were painfully true.

Azrael buckled himself in next to Cass, leaving plenty of room for Orion. "At least someone's excited for this mission. Let the artist take the pictures, while the warriors fight the monsters."

Once Orion was in, Xyra hopped down and took a seat by the window, holding Painbrush across her lap. She wistfully looked out the window at Beacon, her mind finally turning to the mission. "So... you think we'll encounter new Grimm, or more of the same?"

Cass shrugged and looked away: "I would just say don't get your hopes up."

Xyra pouted at Cass' response, looking out the window again. The thought of seeing a new kind of Grimm filled her with determination. The airship lifted off, headed for the mysterious island. "My hopes are up, and you can't stop them, Boss." Xyra crossed her arms across her chest, determined to be in a good mood regardless of her teammates.

After what felt like hours of uncomfortable silence, the airship reached the island. The students were joined by a woman wearing purple sunglasses, presumably the "specialist" the mission briefing said would accompany them. "Good day, students! You may not know me, but I am Violet Strob, and I am a Huntress! I also take the photos of the school for the yearbook and the website."

Ms. Strob wheeled in a large suitcase, which contained six cameras and a dozen notebooks and pens. She tossed each of the four two notebooks and a handful of pens, talking the whole time. "Your mission is to document the creatures that live on the island. Your particular area of concern is the caves and tunnels that run underground. If you are familiar with the species of Grimm, make a note in your notebook. If you notice anything unusual about them, or they are a species you do not recognize, make detailed notes in your notebook and take pictures if you can. Each of you will be given one camera. DO NOT LOSE YOUR CAMERA! I will have two, and I will be taking many photos.

If we are attcked by the Grimm, I expect you to handle them. I will assist if necessary, but my focus must remain on the photos! I was told you would be able to handle yourselves." She hands each student a camera, keeping two for herself. She straps on a parachute, moving to the door. "I am told the pilot will not land here, so we must jump. When you are ready, students, we go!"

Cass got up immediately despite the airship being in midflight, and walked to the door. She tossed her camera, notebook and pens to Xyra: "Catch." She felt Ms. Strob staring daggers at the young women, but Cass waved her with a disinterested gesture. "Before you say anything," Cass began. "In about a minute, that will make sense. Secondly, this mission is about as close to bull as anything I've done. Unless we get attacked by Grimm, which I almost hope we do, I am just about useless, since these hands...weren't made for notes or picture taking."

In the next moment, she practically ripped the door open and turned to the others. "See you down there," she said before falling out of the airship. Without a parachute.

Xyra fumbled with the items, having been given next to no warning. She managed not to drop anything, grinning as Ms. Strob glared in her direction. When Cass ripped the door open, the sudden shift in air pressure threatened to rip the notebooks out of her hands. "Wait, what are you-" Cass was gone before Xyra could even finish her question.

Cass danced through the air as she hurtled towards the ground. The rush of air in her face was refreshing, waking up the woman from the drowsy flight. Sharp gusts of wind due to her progressively increasing velocity did little to impede her vision. Her...special qualities saw to that. As much as she hated what happened to her, it was moments like this one, in her isolation, that she was grateful. The others on the flight were probably panicking, wondering if their Captain had just committed suicide. The shock on their faces when all was said and done would be hilarious. The only thing she didn't count on was the difficulty breathing. The thin air did not make matters particularly easy. It was lucky that only so much of her body actually needed oxygen. As her descent continuted, the air got thicker, breathing got easier, and the ground got closer.

She directed her path to a small clearing, away from the scenic imagery of luscious foilage that composed the small island they found themselves landing on. Knowing full well that hitting the ground was going to be rough, she spread her body out to encounter a bit more air resistance, slowing her acceleration only so much, but enough to manuever her aerobatics. Moments before impact, she flipped, punching the ground with one of her Twin Enforcers. A loud shockwave echoed throughout the island and a surge of electricity pulsed through the environment. The smell of burnt grass filled the air after her landing, but she stood tall, feeling her knees buckle a bit. "Oh, that was a bit hard on the knees."

Back in the airship, Ms. Strob watched Cass fall, somehow managing to keep an eye on her the entire time. "Ah, she has arrived safely on the ground! Why are you three still here? Join her!" She pointed to the open door, moving back to her suitcase to collect the rest of her gear.

Azrael shrugged, trying to look cool. "See you slowpokes on the ground! Think fast!" He tossed his notebooks and pens to Xyra, taking a picture of himself as he stepped out of the plane. Like Cass, he didn't bother with a parachute. Freefall was more fun than he had anticipated, and he laughed as he tried various midair tricks.

As the ground got closer, he stopped playing around and got serious. After a teleporting mishap a couple weeks back, he had learned how to teleport upwards, though he still had issues regarding gravity. He had learned that it could cancel his momentum, though, and after several short jumps, he was able to land safely, hitting the ground at a roll and coming to a stop not far from Cass. "Piece of cake, Cass!"

After having another set of notebooks thrown at her, Xyra was having trouble juggling everything. Painbrush was secured against her back, but Azrael's pens bounced off her and clattered to the floor. She could only assume they got sucked out of the airship, as she quickly lost sight of them. "Oh, COME ON!"

"Ms. Coronis! Before your final team mate decides you are the pack mule, perhaps you should jump!" Ms. Strob shouted over the rush of wind. She herself jumped out of the airship, carrying her gear in a large satchel.

Xyra glanced at Orion, refusing to believe he'd do that to her. She grabbed a parachute and a satchel, stuffing all her gear into it. "Come on, let's get down there before we lose them! Avante!" She jumped out, keeping her limbs tight against her body to dive faster, pulling her parachute once she could make out the ground below. She drifted gently down, aiming for the clearing, until a sudden gust of wind blew her into a tree, getting her parachute hopelessly tangled in the branches. She hung there for a moment, wishing she was back at Beacon.

Soon after the gust of wind, Orion came to the ground in a rush surrounded by a forcefield that broke his fall. A cloud of dust kicked up as he made an impact, primarily to the forcefield's brunt force crashing into the ground. As the dust cloud was caught by another rush of wind and dissappaited into the air, he turned to the two others that lead the charge to the island. "That was not good idea. Very dangerous."

"I don't see you packing a parachute, Orion, so let's not start being a hypocrite. It's our first mission and I don't want to knock any of you out yet," Cass snapped back as she looked around. She only counted out two teammates, which was hardly surprising considering who was missing. "Where's Xyra?"

Orion pivoted around on his foot and desperately scanned the area: "Now, that is good question."

"Of course, it is," Cass said with seething rage. "Now, where is she?"

Orion shrugged. "She jumped before me. Perhaps she still floating. She used-"

Cass held up a hand. "Hold on," she said, as she walked by Orion and Azrael. Glancing up, she saw Xyra fidget in the tree. Cass couldn't hold in a smirk, but soon decided to put her out of her misery in her own way. Cocking back a fist, Cass punched the base of the tree and it collapsed to the ground. With Xyra in it.

Xyra had been wondering how this situation could possibly get any worse. Cass was kind enough to provide an answer. As the tree fell over, Xyra panicked just a little. "No no no wait wait WAIT!" She managed to draw Painbrush and cut the cords of her parachute, spilling three large drops of white Dustpaint as she did. The drops formed into a trio of Chrominions, little more than blobs of paint with limbs, but the little guys managed to catch her as she fell, keeping her safe as the tree crashed to the ground behind her.

She picked herself up, dusting off her skirt as the Chrominions collapsed into puddles. She turned to Cass, forcing an embarrassed grin onto her face. "In my defense, it wasn't my fault. It was the parachute."

"Blaming the parachute is low," Cass quipped. "Just try not to get stuck in anything else on the mission. I won't be there to bail you out all the time."

Ms. Strob cleared her throat, getting the attention of the students. None of them had even noticed her land, but she stood there, cameras in hand, ready to proceed. "If you students are finished, we have a mission to complete. We go!"

Shak · Mar 21, 2016

-Team SHLD
Selena Harter

Harley Barrett

Lars Berrardi

Dylan Arrianou​

Lost in Translation

"Foster? Wait, don't tell me you're this 'team of professional huntsman' we're supposed to be meeting." Selena edged towards the teacher hesitantly, making no effort to hide her disappointment. In the month that they'd been at the school, he'd helped them to develop their semblances to a competent state, but he certainly didn't seem fit to be guiding them on a mission with such a high potential threat. She'd been expecting someone a little more heroic, charismatic...nicer? They were expecting to combat faunus with adept combat abilities, and Foster hardly seemed like the kind of guy to take responsibility should something go wrong.

"What, I look like an entire team to you? Lans sent me here as part of the team that's here to guide you. I'm sure as hell not doin it alone." He snapped back at Selena, who faltered slightly the moment she was addressed. She had some reason to be relieved then. "So what made you guys choose this one?"

"The admirable drive and desire of a certain teammate of ours." She beamed, before immediately dropping her face into a much gloomier expression to ensure that Foster would recognize the sarcasm. "I personally wanted the island sight seeing mission. Would've been nice to go exploring." She sighed, walking past the teacher.

"You couldn't put it to a vote?"

"Was it even worth it?" She scoffed with a rhetorical retort. She had no interest in waiting for any smart remark Foster may have wanted to respond with, and made her way into the back of the jeep.

"Do we really have to do this? Honestly the fact that this is a mission worries me."
Dylan had been quiet for most of the ride, as he had been deep in thought ever since he was informed of the nature of the mission they had now embarked now. His expression would tell just about anyone how he felt about it. Capturing Faunus? For what reason? Everyone knew relations between the two races were just about as strained as they were going to get, or at least they would be soon. An act that could pretty much be dubbed "abduction" could easily be seen as an act of war. He wanted no part in this, absolutely no part in this, and yet here he found himself. The placement of a hand on his shoulder caused his entire body to tense up as it interrupted his train of thought; gradually relaxing only after a familiar voice spoke at his left.

"I get why you're upset kiddo, but you gotta relax for now."
Harley gave his shoulder short squeeze, and then let go as the vexed boy turned to face her. Her eyes rested on his for a moment before looking past him towards the jeep and beyond. Something like this wasn't exactly what she had expected when she enrolled at the school. From what she had understood, the school had been founded in order to train people to fight Grimm, not each other. Sure, Faunus weren't human and the two races had their differences, but to be antagonizing each other with the threat of Grimm lingering? What the hell was wrong with the leadership?

"Just relax..."
The more she thought, the more her mood became apparent to those around her. Harley, who had almost never been seen without that boisterous grin or playful smirk was frowning; a muscle in her jaw working furiously as she began gnashing her teeth. Unconsciously, her aura flared. A second later her face had normalized somewhat, her mouth taking the shape of a slightly tilted frown as she ruffled Dylan's hair halfheartedly and began walking towards the jeep.

Selena opened her mouth to speak, but seemed to hesitate against her will. Instead, she returned to her more withdrawn position in the front seat. It was a strange feeling she had, and couldn't really explain it. For better or worse, Foster's re-emergence broke the tension she felt at that moment, so at least he was good for that much.

"Alright, we got three, so just one left. You guys got any idea where your teammates at?" Foster asked, wiping his hands clean with an old cloth. Selena sighed a sigh of satisfaction that the question she'd planned on asking had been asked without her needing to. Still though, she couldn't shake the uneasy feeling from a second ago.

Finally making her way over to the jeep, Harley grabbed hold of the door, bracing against it to swing herself up and into the vehicle. Sitting back in her seat, she paused for a moment before launching a kick at the seat in front of her out of frustration. She then balanced an arm on the edge of the door, beginning to tap on the outside of it in a manner that clearly indicated her irritation. "No I don't but he'd better get his ass down here quick. He's the one that picked the damn mission, kinda makes sense that he should've been the first one here. "

Dylan, slightly disturbed by her display of anger, made his way to the vehicle as well and entered in a very un-Harley-like manner. He sensed no measure of humor in her words, which concerned him to a greatly. Adding to this, he could not seem to catch her attention; she was deliberately avoiding him now.

"Bastard better be here soon. We're on a schedule here." Foster groaned, hopping into the driver's seat. "You guys may have to go in after him if he doesn't show up soon. Worst case senario, we go without "

"He'll be here." Selena added sharply. If she was supposed to be leading this team, she wasnt going to let Lars' negligence slow them down. Shortly after she spoke her slacking teammate promptly arrived carrying behind him, more than his fair share of luggage. When compared to the fact that the rest of his team had none, his camping backpack and slingbag were just...pointless extras. "You brought bags?" She squinted, not hesitating to express the judgement in her tone. Lars responded with his signature arrogant smirk, but provided no verbal explanation.

"Hey there kitty cat." Lars prodded at the unsuspecting head of Elke, before dodging the hate filled glare that would proceed it. Needless to say, she was all but pleased to see one of the three people at the school who knew her secret. She retaliated with a sharp hiss, but changed to a growl upon noticing she had to make an effort to repress the cat like action.

"The hell do you want? And dont ever call me that again." She continued to growl, her teeth clenched fiercely.

"Firstly for you to calm down. We cant have this conversation if you're like that." Lars retorted defensively. The piercing glare he received was all he needed, to know he should probably have been trying to wrap things up. "So ummm...I kinda need..." He continued to ponder.

"What? Are you trying to ask me out or something?" She mocked in a rather flat tone. A remark that was met by a derivative sneer from the the male huntsman.

"I kinda need to know where I can find...more faunus." He rubbed his head innocently after making his request. At this point it seemed as if the cat faunus had completely lost interest in her human peer's enquiry. She rolled her eyes and began walking away. Although he considered chasing her down and perhaps blackmailing her, and maybe forcing her into fighting him, she honestly wasnt all that interesting to fight for him. Admittedly she was strong, but there was a lot more that went into an interesting fight than just a strong opponent. He had to find himself an interesting faunus to fight. He'd need to find where they all hid. Wel...where all the strong ones hid."

"What's with all the bags Lars? This isn't some kind of camping trip." Harley repeated, curious as to why Selena's question wasnt answered. A question to glanced away blankly, before returning the same wry grin he responded to Selena with. The question had snapped him back into reality, but it hadnt lessened his drive too find a strong faunus opponent.

Though she had asked this, Harley barely cared to hear the answer. She was somehow managing to keep her voice level, though inside she was holding back a measure of aggression. She wanted to call him out blatantly, but all things considered it didn't seem like the right time, even for her. Instead she turned her attention to Dylan, having felt his eyes finally give up their assault on her conscious. Sparing a cautious glance in her direction, she managed to make out a rather troubling expression on his face.

Partially visible behind his intertwined hands, his electric blue eyes had taken on a rather cold tone as they looked off into the distance. An indiscernible type of music blared through his headphones, signalling that his desire to speak had long since passed. Perhaps this is what he looked like when he was upset...

Beacon Academy: Vehicle Depot​

Khawill · Mar 24, 2016

Team GAIN in: Dysfunction!

Gaige Archer Ilexa Nina

I wake up laying on a cheap mat, my body bandaged and bruised. I sit up quickly, feeling a sharp pain in my stomach. Gaige runs up and lays me down, "Relax Archer, you don't want to undo the twelve hours of work we did to fix you all up." He gives me a glass of water, and I sit up slowly.

"How is Nina?" I ask, taking a sip, realizing that I am incredibly dehydrated.

"Both of them are fine." Gaige responded, "One of the fauna on the cart happened to be a skilled doctor." I look at him quizzically, "Oh yeah, you should probably know sooner than latter that we were smuggling faunus."

I stand up, feeling a sharp pain, but pushing Gaige away as he tries to stop me, "Smuggling fauna?!" I say frustrated, "Nina almost died so we could smuggle faunus?!" I begin to limp toward the door.

Gaige supports me, trying gently to restrain me as well, "Archer, don't be rash, I'm pissed about it too, but…"

"But what?" I reply angrily, "We're we also smuggling stolen dust?"

"No…" He says, trying to phrase it, "Well, I got you out because you weren't in the worst condition…"

"What do you mean?"

"The building we were in, where you were fixed up, it was raided by local authorities." He looks solemnly at me, "Ilexa is in the other room, she came to during the raid."

"What? What was the raid for?"

"They knew that the cart had faunus, they took all of the faunus from the cart, and then the driver for conspiring. They took Nina as well." Gaige looks at me, waiting for me response, calculating my emotions.

"We need to get her out then." I say after a breath, "Where is Ilexa?"

"I uh, had to restrain her a bit." He leads me into the next room and Ilexa is struggling and writhing on the floor, tied up and muted. "She resisted like four sedations strong enough to put a horse down. I figured her wake up would be a little more violent than yours."

"Why did you put a sock in her mouth?" I ask, locking eyes with her and immediately regretting it. For that instant, I felt closer to death than I had ever felt before.

"Besides the fact that we are hiding, she was calling me all manner of profanities and slurs, I said she needed to be quiet, and then she bit me."

"She bit you? Why were you so close?"

"I didn't expect her to bite me." He retorted.

I sigh, and kneel down next to her, "We're going to get your sister out of there." I say, "But before I untie you, I need you to calm down so we can come up with a plan." She sits still for a moment, looks at me, then slams her head against me, causing a surge of pain to course through me. I clench my fist and swallow the pain, taking her gag out. What came was a monologue of profanity, words that I had never heard before, and words I was pretty sure my grandfather used. Most of them were directed at Gaige. "Ilexa, calm down." I say, restraining her, but undoing her ties, trying not to cry out from the pain, "We aren't leaving this town until she is safe."

"That traitor sold the faunus out and left Nina to get arrested." She yelled, struggling to get free. I could tell she was weaker than usual, "I heard him do it after he knocked me out." I undo the last knot and let go of her, and she immediately attacks Gaige.

"You did what Gaige?" I say, looking at him sternly.

Ilexa sluggishly throws punches at him, and he easily avoids them, "I was following rules by alerting the guards to the faunus, and I knew Nina was safer with the faunus doctor." He trips Ilexa, causing her to topple over, "They only have one cell, so they can't separate them."

"You're more snake than your dust things." Ilexa yells trying to punch him. I watch, trying to process everything, "Archer, he sold my sister out, help me kill him!"

I take a breath, "So Nina was pretty badly injured?"

He nods, "The town doesn't have doctors as far as I've seen. I called one from the school, and they said they would be here soon."

"How soon?" I ask.

"They said two days, and that was yesterday."

I think for a moment, "Ilexa, stop trying to kill Gaige."

"Don't tell me to stop!" She yells, looking at me, "She could be dying."

"Ilexa, you know better than either of us how bad of a condition she was in. Gaige may be a snake…"

"Hey!" He says, not really hurt by the statement.

"But he did buy your sister time for serious medical treatment. Now, I don't know how I feel about the faunus being locked up." I say with a sigh, standing up, and wincing, "But I do want some answers at the very least." I take a step, each movement painfully reminding me that this is partially my fault. I walk slowly up to Ilexa, who looks at me with conflicted emotions. "I shouldn't have let your sister fight that thing." I say, tearing up from both guilt and pain, "Gaige didn't get Nina hurt, I did, so if you want to punch anyone." I tap my cheek.

"Archer if she hits you, your wou--" Gaige begins.

"Gaige, I don't want to hear it." I say, looking at Ilexa, waiting for her to do it.

She clenches her fist, then her jaw, then closes her eyes, she sighs deeply. "I shouldn't have been thrown out of the fight, and I should've been faster getting back." She says, shaking, "But… I don't care about should haves and buts, I just want my sister back." She relaxes, and looks at me with determined eyes, "I don't trust the snake, but I do trust you, Archer. If you promise to get my sister back, then I'll follow whatever your plan is. But when we get back to the school, and when Nina gets better, we're going to fight."

I put my hand out, "Deal." I say. She takes my hand and we shake on it. I look at Gaige, "Gaige, I assume you scouted the town."

"I know it like the back of my hand at this point." He says, looking at us curiously.

"Good, how hard would it be to get Nina out?" I ask.

"If we ask for her to get out on the basis that she was kidnapped, it could be pretty easy." He says, "But the faunus and that driver would probably blow that plan out the window."

"And since it is a single cell, I imagine that breaking her out would mean taking the faunus with us?" I say, thinking.

"Pretty much. There's about five faunus and the driver, so it would be hard to break them out." He replies, "And Nina would have to be carried, which would significantly slow our escape."

I nod, "What if we just break the faunus out?" I reply, "We could stage it so that it looks like a lynching."

Gaige nods, "That could work, it isn't unheard of for such things to happen, but what about Nina?"

"Getting the faunus out would mean that nobody would deny our kidnapped lie." I say, "We free the faunus, leave some blood and signs of a struggle, and hopefully the authorities won't look too much into it."

Gaige thinks for a moment, "We could bring them back here, it isn't far from the jail, and we could get blood for rabbits or something."

"How will we break them out?" Ilexa asks, "Can't be as easy as walking in the door and opening the cell."

"No, but we could probably make a scene." Gaige replies, "If we burn down the house that the faunus were found in, then we could probably distract anyone guarding the cell, and it would strengthen our lynching lie."

"Think that will be okay?" I ask him, "Arson isn't exactly a victimless crime."

"The house stands alone, and is pretty rickety." He replies, "There's a lot of them around here, and I'm pretty sure nobody lives in that specific one."

I nod, "Then we break them out tonight. Keep the faunus here to take care of Nina, get answers, and then go home with medical help." I look at Ilexa, "Sound good?" She nods, against the whole thing. I hug her, "We're going to get her back." I say softly, "Then the two of you can pummel Gaige and me." She hesitates a moment, and then hugs me back, staining my shirt and bandages with tears.

something here

GreyBidoof · Mar 25, 2016

TEAM SNAP

Sacha Abramovich

Nakahiko Mitsuki

Paxton Vacik

Artemis Gale

EPS 1: OUT THE WINDOW

The drone of the airship penetratred the cargo hold, where the four members of team SNAP currently sat.

The onboard PA speaker crackled to life, bearing news from the vessel's pilot.

"T-Minus five minutes to drop point."

Artemis nodded, as if the voice could see her response. She had memorized the short mission briefing that had been provided by her instructors back at Beacon, and everything was proceeding as planned. Their mission was to retrieve crates of military equipment from a remote, unnamed island. The team had also been informed that there was a significant grimm presence, part of which was a colony of the dangerous "Death Stalker" variant.

Her hand tightened on Grimmslayer. After long weeks of training, at last she had her chance to prove herself in the field. Now, according to what the pilot, they weren't far from the drop zone. It was time for a landing strategy.

Turning around to face the rest of her team, Artemis groaned internally. Sacha sat there, who apparently decided to sleep during the entire ride while Nakahiko was beside her, creating more drama scenes inside his briefcase with a content smile on his face. And then there was Paxton, who seemed to pay no attention as always, his face glued to his scroll.

Simply tapping the tall, lanky scroll-bearing guy seemed to have no effect, as always. Sighing, Artemis casually let go of her rifle, dropping it square on Paxton's right foot.

"Ouch, hey!" The red-haired boy cried out, finally taking notice of his teammate's presence before him. "You know, you could try just talking instead of smacking me with your gun, Art."

The girl rolled her eyes. "Like you would hear me. And for the last time, don't call me that."

Paxton chuckled despite the frosty glare. "What's up?"

"What's up is that we need decide on a descent and landing strategy. We don't have much time left, so let's grab the others."

Naka blinked, snapping out of his dollhouse trance and closed his briefcase, gently tapping on the sleeping girl beside him. "Sash.." He murmured, trying to be as careful as ever. It took him a few tries, at least four? If he counted it right-- to even get the girl to slightly move and stretch out the remaining sleep in her body. "Sachaaa.." Naka tried once more, now using a little bit more force to even get the girl to stop blowing stray white hairs from her face.

"I'm up, I'm up." Sacha groaned, using her free hand to pat the floor around her, the other hand still fixing her hair back to it's natural straightness. "Where are my glasses?" She mumbled, almost tumbling over when she felt a familiar pair being given to her. Mumbling a soft thanks, she slipped on her familiar pair and stood up, letting out a final yawn before turning to face the leader. "Okay, so I'm up, what's the plan?"

"There's no plan yet, Sash." Naka smiled, now also turning towards his self proclaimed leader. He was glad to be coupled up with them. They weren't the easiest bunch to talk to, but they're improving! At least that's what Naka saw. That's alright; he was a patient guy. Speaking of leader... "So, Artemis, got any good plans up your sleeve?"

Artemis nodded towards her smiling teammate. "There are a few options we have, based on our chosen trajectory, landing point, and how we use our skills." Sacha raised a brow and hid a growing smile; Artemis really was born to be a leader. It's only been weeks and she already had the hang over everyone's capabilities. "Now, when we exit the plane, we'll be moving at a high velocity towards the islands below. I will access my abilites to locate the best possible landing location."

"Somewhere without trees," Sasha proposed, "Or maybe in the middle of the leaves for a safe touchdown."

"Sacha will then use her atmospheric control to steer us towards that spot, as well as slow our descent. As we approach ground level, Nakahiko can then cast a condition that slows our descent further, allowing for a safe landing." Naka wanted to interrupt to say that using his nickname 'Naka' was fine, but Artemis seemed to be too much in character with the strategy talk. "As for Paxton, I-"

Realizing there were only two figures listening to her monologue, the rifle-toting girl swiftly turned back towards Paxton, who was still reclining in the same position as before. Earbuds in-ear, and tapping away at his device, his lack of attention was disappointing, but not surprising. Naka noticed this, and smiled; They're quite the best of friends, he mused.

"PAXTON."

The tone of Artemis' frustrated voice seemed to penetrate even the Paxton's legendary distraction. He looked up, unfazed. "Yeah?"

"We just went over the landing strategy for the mission. The one we're on right now. Everyone needs to stay focused and do their part, or we all fail. Got it?"

The boy just shrugged and relaxed back into his former position. "Yeah, sure thing. We've got this, no worries!" He paused. "Wait, what's my part, again?"

Shooting him a look that could kill on sight, she replied, "Just stay alive."

"Make sure to take a great selfie on our landing, Pax!" Sacha smiled, "And do snap my good side~" She said, giving him a good enough pose before readying her things. Namely, checking if her weapons were still intact and loaded.

Naka, panicked slightly when he felt a hole on his mask, and immediately took a spare one from his briefcase before replacing them and signalling that he was also ready for action. They weren't sure if he was smiling due to the mask, but the way he's slightly jumping up and down seemed to tell the team that he was already so excited for the jump. "I wonder what condition would work?" He mumbled, mostly to himself. "I'm not exactly good at conditions yet... but... floating sounds simple enough!"

"T-minus twenty seconds to drop point."

Artemis tensed at the sound of the announcement. She felt the rush of wind flood the hold as the bay doors opened, readying herself for what would come next.

"Alright, we're going to have to time this right. On my count, we-"

A bright flash momentarily blinded the team. Three heads turned towards the source, which happened to Paxton, scroll held up as if capturing the scene. Another damn photo.

Luckily, Sacha managed to spot the incoming photo and made a peace sign for the occasion, pretending to ignore their leader's growing frown.

Not giving their leader a chance to protest, Paxton, let himself fall backwards, right out the cargo bay doors into the howling abyss, a huge, stupid grin on his face.

"SEE YOU GUYS ON THE OTHER SIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIde"

Sacha shrugged; the sooner they land the sooner they get to finish the mission. "'Kay~ I'm next!" She yelled, using a bit of her semblance to jump high and possibly go straight towards the app playing maniac. "Wheeeee! PAXTON IF YOU CAN HEAR ME THIS IS A GREAT SPOT FOR A NEAT PICTUREEEEE!"

"Eh? S-sa.." Naka barely managed to get a word out as Sacha easily passed him, already closing in on Paxton in a few seconds as she used the pressure to speed up her descent. "Here's to hoping I land in one piece..." He took a glance at Artemis, mouthing a quick sorry before he also stepped forward to drop himself, with his trusty briefcase being the only thing that he was clinging onto for dear life.

Artemis rushed forward, securing Grimmslayer's strap around her chest securely. There was only one thought on her mind, as she somersaulted out of the plane.

"If we survive, I'm going to kill him."

(Infinite , GreyBidoof);

SkyisUmbreon · Mar 25, 2016

-Team SHLD
Selena Harter

Harley Barrett

Lars Berrardi

Dylan Arrianou​

Heart to Heart

It had been a long drive, and not a particularly enjoyable one. Against his best judgement, Foster had multiple times to light some conversation in the jeep, but it was all pointless. He had one self absorbed idiot in the back, one who was completely shut off from the group and wrapped up in his headphones, one was giving him some sort of response but they were all either halfhearted or unnecessarily passive aggressive and the last one...well he couldn't see what was behind him, but he never considered her the quiet one of team SHLD. He could've tried to help the situation, but this was seriously too many problems all at one time.

When he pulled up the jeep, the other three huntsmen that were supposed to be accompanying them were stood, already waiting just outside the thick of the forresty terrain.

"I'm assuming you guys are the beacon students..."

All too happy at the chance to not be in such close proximity to the ass and possibly the only other person who's opinion she cared for, Harley hopped out of the jeep and immediately broke into a large stretch. While doing so she took one look at the forest in front of her and sighed. It'd be harder to use her weapon with so many trees around... well hopefully she wouldn't have to in the first place. Where the hell were they anyway?

"That's correct." Affirmed Dylan in an uncharacteristically clear and firm voice. He had quietly exited the vehicle and removed the headphones from one side of his ear so that he could listen and participate in any verbal exchanges. His expression, however, had not changed in the slightest. He turned to stare back at Lars, who had already hopped out of the vehicle and began to wonder off, if only to admire the scenery, for a few seconds; before continuing, speaking as he swung his head around to inspect the new arrivals once more. "If you are the additional huntsmen I suppose we'll be your helpers here. When do we get this over with?"

Harley paused in her stretches as the ice in his voice sent a involuntary shiver down her spine, but quickly resumed her activities. Instead she turned her attention to Selena with a questioning look. Harley and Dylan both had reasons to stay quiet through that ride, but what was her deal?

"Unfortunately kid, I couldn't tell ya. We're searchin' for animals on the run essentially. Ever looked for a stray dog? "

I'm sorry what? Excuse me, did you really just liken them to a stray dog?" Harley was in his face in a heartbeat. So much for restraint, but this wasn't exactly something she could abide. "These are people you asshole; we're looking for people." Her hand twitched at her side, wanting to reach up and grab a handful of his shirt, however she figured there was a low chance of getting away with that. The senior huntsman, back off. While he no doubt had his nerves at being confronted by imposing young women, he couldn't allow himself to be emasculated in front of his teammates - much less the three other students. The girl's outburst seem grab the attention of of the other students. They seemed surprised, startled even, to be hearing the girl react in such a way.

"Watch your mouth rookie." He commanded firmly through gritted teeth.

"Make sure you watch yours too. If this whole mission is going to work, maybe you show me something worth respecting. If you're a professional, why don't you act like it." she snapped back, passing stern glances between his other two teammates. She probably would've continued if she hadn't felt a hand on her shoulder and the voice that followed it.

"What she means is, she would prefer it if you would refrain from using derogatory terms to describe the people we're here for." Asserted Dylan, acting quickly to try and defuse Harley. His intervention was a timely one. One of the other two hunters grabbed her weapon ready to subdue the angered Harley, but seeing Dylan step in had made her put her weapon away. Seeing Dylan take a stance in the situation brought a warm smile to Selena's face, as she watched on like a proud sister. She was tempted to stand proudly beside her teammate, but withdrew back into her thoughts.

"We're here to find, arrest and if necessary, kill five faunus who have been terrorizing this part of the country for weeks now. We do not sympathize with the enemy. We do not befriend the enemy. You know what else we don't do little lady?" He ended condescendingly. "We do not speak out of place when confronted with people who actually know what they're doing!" He continued, raising his voice.Without so much as a look back to hear what kind of 'witty' or sarcastic response the girl could muster, the mission's leader had stomped off into the thick of the forest.

""Come on, let's calm down now." Foster was quick to intervene, stopping Harley from doing or saying anything else of a rash and impulsive nature. He herded the angered girl and her two teammates that had bothered to stand by and see out the situation, and ushered them away from the direction the Huntsman had gone in. While his female companion seemed to disappear into the forest following their own irritated squad member, he caught up to the beacon representatives and handed Foster the mission information before taking shelter under the trees not too far from the group. "So, care to explain what the hell that was about?" He snapped at Harley, who he'd somehow managed to sit on a reasonably sized tree stump.

Harley blinked a few times, staring back at Foster with an innocent smile. "What was what about? I don't think I did anything wrong." Playing dumb, or in her case just stating what she thought to be the truth. She had heard something repulsive and responded swiftly.... nothing wrong there. "If you're talking about that leader-guy, I don't see the issue. He was being an ass." She kicked her feet against the stump like an innocent bored child, the smile never leaving her face.

Foster sighed, lowering him so that he was at eye level with Harley, and giving her an annoyed glare.

"Hey Foster, you think the-" Lars began before being abruptly cut short by his teacher.

"Not now, Lars." Foster waved dismissively, before turning his scolding attention back to Harley. "I don't need your bull****, alright? The man was right. Regardless of what your feelings are, you're supposed to act like a professional in that situation. You don't sympathize with the enemy." He finished softly, despite the stern tone he took entering the scolding.

The smile on her face wavered somewhat at the softened tone, but quickly righted itself as she kicked off the stump once more. "Are things really that bad that we have to be calling them dumb names like that? It's like toddlers on a playground. Even if we don't like them, that doesn't mean we have to make fun of them. What I did is not called sympathizing, It's called being human." Lifting her eyes from Foster's, she turned to glance at the rest of her group with that same smile, though it seemed to have lost it's luster. She hopped off the stump and detached her compacted weapon from her back, spinning it like a baton as it extended to it's full length as a battleaxe and was planted firmly in the ground. Using it as if it were a walking stick, she began moving towards the forest, stopping after a few paces to turn and stare at the group again. "If we can't understand that, then maybe we're the dogs. The kid knows." She said, nodding in Dylan's direction.

His headphones now hung around his neck, Dylan let out a deep sigh. He reached up behind his head to rub his neck as if it were sore, turning partially away from the group before he spoke. " To be completely honest, I just want to get this over with. Those guys... or at least their leader said something that was pretty uncalled for. We still have to work with them at least. The faster we get this done, the better." Feeling a mix of sudden fatigue and irritation, he let the hand fall to his side and turned to face the group again. "Let's just get this done alright? No fights, no drama" He finished, looking between Lars and Selena respectively.

"I don't see what the big deal is." Lars added flatly. A comment which sparked an instant uneasy feeling in Foster. "I mean, from what I've seen, they are technically animals, although he may have called them the wrong one." He was crouched down with a stick, prodding and pondering over a muddy patch in the grassland.

A hand instantly shot out towards Harley, who had already hefted her battleaxe and taken a step towards Lars. He attempted to choose his words carefully, but of course the guy was making it difficult. "Lars, it doesn't matter. Don't go throwing in more dry wood on the coals. Like I said let's just get it done alright?"

"What? You're gonna try to physically attack your teammate for seeing things from a reasonable prospective? That's progressive." He rolled his and stood up. He knew the deadpan tone in which he spoke would piss her off. It always did. Not even the 'happy go lucky' Harley was really going to overcome Lars' prodding. Not like it was intentional in the first place, but since this was happening he figured he'd make a party of it. A smirk slowly crept on his face.

"I swear to god-" She sputtered before being cut off once again by Dylan. He stared at her hard until she put down the weapon, shoving it into the ground and staring back at him angrily. Having seen to that he turned back to his goading teammate. "Knock it off man, this isn't the time. This is our first mission and we already pissed off one of the observers. I don't care who's fault it was, but we all need to get to work, now, so stow it. Foster can you please just divide us into teams or something?"

Foster's head popped up having heard his name.

"Teams, huh?" He glanced back down at the debriefing page before continuing. "Seems like that's what our friends over there had planned." He glanced up, this time taking a single look at each individual who was still in the vicinity. "Looks like the teams pick themselves as well: Selena, sorry to say it, but I'm droppin Lars on you, and Dylan you seem to be doing a good job of looking after miss innocent, so that's a good pair." He gave a satisfied nod before looking over at the leftover huntsman sitting by the tree. "Hey! Me and you are takin these two! We'll take church side, and-"

"Actually, can we..." Selena mumbled. The realization that her minor outburst caught everyone's attention quickly made her reconsider. "...take church side?"

It wasn't an outrageous request, and Foster really had no reason not to accept. She didn't seem like she wanted to go into her reasoning, so he wasn't going to ask.

At Selena's assertion Dylan shot a questioning look, but resisted the urge to comment on it. Since they had gotten to the area she seemed... off, or at least he thought. Before he could ponder further he found himself being hooked by a strong arm. "Wonderful! Great! Let's go." muttered Harley as she half-dragged and half-led the smaller boy off a few steps before stopping again and turning to Foster. "Where are we going?"

Inland: Woodlands​

Light and Darkness Dragon · Mar 25, 2016

TEAM LGHT

Houari watched his teams surroundings, and kept an eye on Tilki who was fiddling with his Dust Pen. What the hell is wrong with this kid? He's wearing high heels, and a dress, and how is he so carefree? Houari thought to himself.

Tilki looked up to the wire frame tower they were heading to destroy. He saw something moved. "Hey Grey, look up there." Houari turned his head and looked as well. He saw a white sentry move its head and focus in on the 4 young adults.

"No!" Grey tossed Tilki to the ground, and ditched the duffel bag of explosives. "When it points its guns at you attack it."

Lauren appreciated the initiative that Grey took and commanded, "Houari, go with Grey. Intercept and evaluate the threat that these bots pose. If you feel even the slightest bit that these bots are a threat to you, get 'em." Almost as if on cue, the bots geared up their guns, seemingly ready to shoot at any moment. That made the evaluation of the threat straightforward and non debatable.

Grey ran towards three bots in full charge ready to smash them. Houari crouched down, and braced his rifle's stock against his bicep. He lined his shot with a running robot through the iron sight. Klik. Psssh! Slique, klink, Bang The sound of Houari firing his weapon, the loud noise it made traveling to its destination, the sound of him pulling the bolt back, and firing the next shot. The eagle faunus quickly unloaded 5 rounds of electric dust into a running bot, causing the bot to overload and explode. Pzzzzzzkkk, Bbbboooomm

The other two bots revved up their guns. It started with a slow, rikt, rikt, rikt and ended with a bbbbrrrruuuzzzz. The sound of the bots' bullets ripped through the air. For some reason they only targeted Grey, the rhinoceros faunus. He leapt in the air to avoid the gunfire of one bot, only to be struck down with hellfire of another. "Gggrrrrrr….," Grey growled from being smacked hard against the ground. He jumped back to his feet. Grey saw the smoke steaming off of the bots guns. He knew he had 26 seconds before they would rev up again. Gray activated his semblance. His body was engulfed in flames, and it propelled him forwards the bots. Mid-dash he equipped his whipaxe from his belt. He lashed it into the neck of a bot. Grey yanked his weapon, pulling the bot into a fiery fierce punch. Grey's fiery fist ripped the bot the bot in half. Grey's flame faded as well as most of his clothes leaving only the smell of burnt metal and leather on the battlefield.

The remaining bots begun revving up their guns.. Grey glared at a bot. Grey anticipated the incoming bullets, and when they did Grey disappeared. A gust of wind was left from where he was standing. The bots stopped their shooting. They looked around for their target. This gave Houari the chance to shoot a couple more. The last sight the machine saw was a girl in a black dress, and high heels wielding a cyan dustsaber running towards it. The bot ran its protocols, asking the girl for identification before shooting. Grey fell from the sky like a meteor. He landed on top of the bot, crushing it like a tin can.

Houari picked up the bag of explosives and ran alongside Lauren to catch up with Grey, and Tilki who were heading to the tower. Tilki, and Grey were met by seven bots. The bots circled around Tilki, and Grey. They stood back to back. Rikt, rikt, rikt the bots revved their guns. Tilki took a deep puff of ice dust from his weapon. For a moment it felt like time slowed down for him. Tilki flipped backwards, and launched himself off Grey's back to a bot aiming at him. Tilki, in midair switched the dust in his weapon from ice to fire. The fox faunus slashed his saber through the neck of the machine, and diagonal from its arm, and legs in a Z formation, causing the machine to explode.

Grey crossed his arms together to better protect his face and midsection. He focused his aura to protect him against the hellfire he was about to endure. Thier sights focused on Grey and about to fire. Lauren, with her tense muscles, pumped herself up and channeled a rush of adrenaline. Not wanting to see her teammates hurt motivated to bolt into action with her trident, Mare Fidelis. Lauren stabbed it into the ground, vaulting herself forward, arched towards a bot with a tense and focused stance. She smashed her heel into a bot. It fell to its knees from the hit and its head spun. Her hand was still on the shaft. She thrust the pummel of her trident forwards into another bot. She spun Mare Fidelis, bopping the bot on its head with the trident. Quickly she reeled the trident back, and thrust the weapon forward piercing through the bot she bopped head. The dolphin faunus activated her semblance. Her semblance, enhanced by water dust she coated her trident with and the nearby sea, concentrated with all of her might, willing a vortex of water, charging it up for a rapid spinning attack, relying on her teammates for cover.

Houari stayed away from the action, preferring to support his team from the sidelines. He went prone while Lauren jumped into the fray. He aimed his rifle at the bot Lauren kicked. BANG. BANG.[/] Two bullets ripped into the chest of the bot Lauren kicked, destroying it with her help.

The four remaining bots focused fire on the rhinoceros faunus. Grey held fast to his position. He grinned and endured the pain with the help of his aura and thick skin protecting him. Houari pushed himself off the ground. He jumped in the air. He fired his rifle rapid succession at the remaining four bots, destroying one, and damaging the other three.

Tilki threw his dustsaber, in a spinning motion dismembering another bot, and yanked it back from the string attached to it. Lauren, having charged up her attack, vaulted forward with her trident and unloaded her pressurized vortex of water, debilitating the bot long enough for Mare Fidelis to activate into a triple barreled shotgun. Loaded with electric Dust charges, Lauren took the weapon in her two hands, aimed at the recovering bot and shot.

"RauWgH!" Grey screamed from the pain. He felt his aura breaking. The last bot was in front of him. Grey's aura shattered. Shards of white glass fell around him. The bots gun in front of him was smoking. Grey's skin became darker, and his white hair turned a blood red. He raised his right knee into the air. In milliseconds Grey vanished in front of the bot, leaving only an after shadow. Grey unleashed his rage on the robot, throwing a series of rapid punches, and kicks. He punched through the shoulder of the bot, ripping its arm. Grey kicked the bot in its ribs, leaving a dent. He spun the bot around. He shoved his foot into the back of the bots knee, forcefully knocking it down to its knees. He punched through the bots collarbone, and down into its chest. He gripped onto the dust inside the robot and pulled it out. Grey stepped to his side, raised his left foot, and kicked the dismantled bot far away into the ocean. Grey's hues reverted to normal, and felt he exhausted as his exertion caught up with him.

Examining the mechanical carnage that lay before them, Lauren took a deep breath and stared in awe at what had transpired in the last few minutes. In Lauren's eyes, it was quite exhilarating, being able to use her athleticism and powers in such a heightened sense. However, seven opponents remained and Lauren was just, getting, started! On the heels of her previous tour de force, she revved up a two streams of water at the palms of her hands, waiting for the pressure to build. When it reached a critical threshold, she charged forward and arced, using the streams like rockets. The pressure forced her off the ground slightly, and she used her momentum to skewer the bot from above. To finish the bot, she shot a devastating blow with her trident transforming into a triple barreled shotgun while still inside the bot, blowing that bot to kingdom come.

Unfortunately each bot they destroyed another one seamlessly joined the fray. There was no sight of this fight ending. The only silver lining was that the team got into the groove of bashing, slashing, and blasting the bots. After the momentum the team gained, the bots learned they could not win with firepower and numbers alone. Their combat evolved to annihilate the four faunus. A sickening whir was heard as their guns morphed into something more potent and destructive: grenade launchers. Grey hearing the clicks, he yells "RUN!!!!!" The remaining bots rained a hellfire of missiles forcing the team to retreat to a cove hugging the bluff.

Houari looked back with his sniper to find a grenade whizzing his way. Tilki yanked the eagle by his belt loop away from the flying shrapnel. Grey was breathing hard, and heavy. He couldn't take much more, and with the bots even more deadly Lauren was feeling the pressure. "I have a plan," she said to her team with a calm and orderly voice. She ran into the ocean with her trident, hoping to get there before the bots had a chance to recalibrate their missiles. She molded the waves to her every movement. A torrent rose out of the water. The torrent had multiple "heads", taking on whip-like tendrils She rode on the "head" of one of the tendrils, and the water spouted her back into action. With her teammates, away from harm, did not have to worry about getting caught in the crossfires. After landing from atop the tendrils, taking out another bot with the severe force and pressure of the tendril, she turned to face some more bots. One of the bots fired a grenade at her. She slugged it away with Mare Fidelis. The water around her swallowed the bots in a whirlpool. She spun her trident around. The water inside the whirlpool became like blades. The bots in her whirlpool were sliced into oblivion. She fell to her knees after exerting herself. The water fell from the sky, making a big splash, and flooding the area. She lifted herself up with the support of her trident. Exhausted from all the fighting she did her best to stay strong, and not show weakness, she maintained a defiant grin and took some deep breaths, careful not to pass out. They regrouped around their soaked duffel bag. Now the explosives were ruined and now they had no way of disarming the beacons. Of course, the underwater ones were going to be disarmed manually, but the towers would have been swiftly dealt with.

As much as Grey wanted to scream, irritated with the nonchalant treatment that Tilki had been treating the mission and frustration that their explosives had been compromised, Grey managed to hold his composure. Houari shared Grey's expression of irritation, perhaps even more so given his demeanor towards Tilki. Tilki didn't get why the rest of his team looked so glum as he smoked from his pen. "Guys! I got this" he said cheerfully. He ran over to the tower. With a flick of his wrist his dust pen protruded a fireblade. The teen slashed at the tower relentlessly. He struck at the base of the leg, and worked his way around the large structure, dissecting it. The tip of the tower fell into the ocean while the rest of it crumbled over itself while Tilki walked back to his team.

Lauren, not quite a "stick in the mud" as she'd call them, excused Tilki and shouted, "Woo, great job, dude! That's the way you do it!" Now feeling the effects of having used so much of her semblance, she said to the rest of her team, "Ooh boy, I'm a little lightheaded, I think I'm just gonna lie down a bit." As she said the sentence, her words slurred and she closed her eyes and passed out with her trident in her right hand. Houari caught her as she fell, scooping her up in his arms, trying not to touch her dorsal fin for fear of messing it up. With Grey not too far behind based on how exhausted he appeared, it was time to wrap up their mission. Now ready to call it a day, the crew shambled out of the cove, Houari with Lauren in his arms and Tilki straining to prop up Grey.

After going back up the path towards the top of the bluff, where Professor Baxiao was waiting, keeping an eye on the whole fight with a pair of binoculars she had now wrapped around her neck on a strap, the team arrived, exhausted and ready to rest for the rest of the day, most of all Grey and Lauren. Speaking of Lauren, Dahlia looked at her daughter with mild concern at seeing her daughter passed out, despite having expected something of this nature when she saw how much of her water semblance she was using.

"Oh no, Lauren, is she alright? It seems she overexerted herself out there, based on all that water craziness I saw."

Grey answered with a terse, "Yes, she's alright." Houari added, examining her physical condition, "Doesn't seem to be hurt. She's breathing, she seems to be tired more than anything else." Dahlia, being the medical professional she was, examined her for any injuries but could not find any to pit it against Houari's observations. Breathing a sigh of relief, satisfied that her daughter was not hurt. Dahlia also wanted to be sure about everyone else, so she asked, "Is anyone else injured?"

Grey grunted, responding, "Yes, ma'am. I, uh, have some bullets that are lodged in my legs."

Mrs. Baxiao, wasting absolutely no time, leapt back into the driver's seat to drive away with expediency to get him to the infirmary. After everyone rushed into position, Tilki getting shotgun, Houari getting the back passenger seat, Grey sitting in the middle with his legs outstretched and Lauren getting positioned by Houari, with her still unconscious, they drove off as Dahlia hit the gas, speeding back towards the infirmary.

Khawill · Mar 26, 2016

Team GAIN in: Burnt Out!

Ilexa and I spent the time practicing our lies and hunting as the two of us waited for Gaige to finish setting up the trigger for the fire. "Okay Ilexa, remember, the two of us are a couple backpacking together around the country. Nina is your sister, who was separated after a grimm attack."

Ilexa scoffs, "Yeah yeah, and 'be sure to play up that you hate faunus'" She repeats Gaige's words in a mocking tone, "I get it." The two of us put masks on, "They better buy it, pretending to be your girlfriend puts a bad taste in my mouth."

I laugh, "Hey at least it isn't Gaige." I grab the bag of dead animals.

"Let's go." She replies. The two of us climb out of an abandoned house's basement. We position ourselves behind the sheriff's building, waiting for the fire to get set off.

I check my watch, "Five, four, three, two, one." I count down, the fire going off right on time. A loud roar echoes in the night, and the glow is easily visible from where we are. We wait a few moments, and as expected, the sheriff runs out to investigate. We look around, and then sneak inside. I look around, there's a desk, a clock, file cabinets, and a single cell blocking off half the room. The faunus and the driver look at us worriedly, and the two of us see Nina resting in the lap of one of the faunus. I grab the keys and unlock the door, "You, stay." I say pointing to the cab driver, "And her." I say, nodding to Nina.

"This girl is in critical condition." The faunus holding her says, "I can't in good faith leave her here."

Ilexa looks out the window, "Three minutes." She says.

I open the door, "We need the faunus to be out of here." I repeat, "Leave the two humans, and follow her."

"I'm not leaving!" The faunus woman says. I pull out my knife and open the bag, "I'm sorry I can't explain, I really am," I say, "But I need some cooperation for this to work." The other faunus begin to get up and leave, "Follow her, and she will explain it all." The file out, the faunus woman still sitting there. "There is a medical team coming for pickup in the morning, they won't be as nice as us when they separate you two." I say, looking her in the eyes. The woman sighs, nods and gets up.

"Her death will be on your hands." She says quietly in my ear as she walks past me. My heart drops, but I take a breath and begin to cut the animals in my bag up, spreading the blood around and making signs of trouble.

I kneel next to the cart driver, "When they ask you what happens, tell them people came in and kidnapped and lynched all the faunus. We will be back in the morning to pick up the girl, I trust you'll side with us when we talk, that is if you want your faunus friends to stay alive for real." I hope he takes my empty threat, my heart pounding as two minutes remain.

"Aye." He says looking at me, "I won't rat you and your team out." He leans against the wall with a yawn.

"I'm sorry we don't have a way to get you out of here." I say apologetically.

"Ah, it was an occupational hazard." He laughs, "If I have to rot in here or somewhere else for a few years to save a bunch of lives, that's just fine on me."

"Thank you." I say, "Do you mind if I get your real name?"

He laughs, "My last name is Grey, and I got the same first name as you, isn't that something?" He looks up at me, "Oh, could you give a letter to my daughter? She goes to your school. I haven't talked to her since I started doing this, I've been afraid to get her involved, but I've been meaning to give this letter to her for a while now." He points to the desk, "The letter is on the table over there." He shakes my hand, slipping me a map, "Give this to the faunus."

I nod finishing up, "Goodbye Archer Grey." I say bowing, grabbing the letter, and running out, locking the cell behind me.

I run and hide in some bushes, watching the sheriff walk into the building. He runs out quickly to look around, and then goes on to find more officers. I watch the scene unfold, and satisfied, I sneak back to the basement.

Illexa, Gaige, and the faunus are inside, waiting quietly. "That went as planned." I say, going in, "The cart driver agreed to go with our lie in the morning, and the officers seemed to have bought the story about the faunus." I look at them, "Stay in hiding for a few days, and then sneak out." I pull the paper out and look at it, a detailed map of the country, marked with names and landmarks, and titled Faunus Underground Freedom System, I take a picture with my phone, and then hand it to the doctor woman, "He told me to give you this."

She takes it from me, and looks me in the eyes grimly, "What do you think will come of him?"

"He'll probably go to trial for a few days, and then get a bit of jail time." I reply, feeling like she was beating me down with her gaze.

She closes her eyes and shakes her head with a sigh, "I understand that you're just a kid, but try to look at the reality of the world." I begin to object, but go through a coughing fit, the painkillers and medicine that Gaige gave me wearing off. "Are you okay?" She asks, "You were in a bad condition last time I saw you." She reaches in to grab me but I push her hand away.

"I'm fine." I cough, looking at my hand, a splatter of blood.

"That isn't fine at all!" She says, trying again. I step back.

"This is according to plan." I say, recovering, the pain becoming intense, "I have to look and act injured for our story to be believable." I go to a nearby chair and sit down. The faunus woman looks at me with an annoyed gaze, "I'll be treated by Beacon's doctors, I'll live."

She shakes her head, "Recklessness will get you killed, or even worse, it'll get those around you killed." She turns around and goes to sit with the remaining faunus.

Gaige walks up to me, "Archer, any questions you want to ask them should be done sooner rather than latter." He says. I nod, coughing more, "And it wouldn't hurt to get a little treatment from the doctor we have here, it'll be two hours before the next part of the plan."

"You're right." I say with a strained voice, "Can you go get her?" Gaige nods and I watch as he taps her shoulder, sending her my way.

"Rethinking your suicide plan?" She says sarcastically.

I shake my head, "I just wanted to ask some questions about your group, it's more for me than anything."

"I'll answer your questions, but I'll have my own questions, and requests." I nod in agreement, "My first request is that you lay down while I use some of my dust to stabilize your body." I nod, getting out of the chair, but falling to the ground, causing me excruciating pain. Ilexa and Gaige run up, but I stop them, rolling myself over.

"Where are you guys running from?" I ask as she begins treatment.

"Those four managed to escape from menagerie and sought me out. I'm leading them to a safe area." I breathe slowly to minimize the pain, "Do you hate faunus?" She asks back.

I shake my head, "I don't hate faunus." I reply, "I don't think much about your species, does that make me a bad person?"

She shrugs, "Indifference and apathy never makes a person good, but I can't say there is inherent evil in it." She sighs, "Apathy can definitely be the safer route." She looks down at me warmly, "Tell me about yourself, do your parents know you risk your life like this?"

I laugh weakly, "My dad is a major inventor, he knows I'm here, but I'm sure he doesn't care much about what I do." I cough, "My mother cut contact with us a couple years ago, she was a huntress and said there were things she had to do."

"I'm sorry." The faunus woman replies.

I smile, "I know she'll come back, she always did." I sigh, tearing up from the pain, "What is your name?"

"Rosa Vidalia." She replies with a smile.

"What is your story?"

"Nothing interesting. After a friend of mine was exposed as a faunus, and taken, I ran away. At the time, all I thought about was the fear of being caught or found out, but being out in the world, I've seen that I was just being a coward."

"Maybe." I reply.

"Why do you do all of this?" She asks, "Surely you have a fear of death?"

"All the time." I laugh, "though right now, it would be less painful to be dead."

She glares at me, "Don't joke about death."

"Sorry." I say, shrinking back and looking away, "My mom was always telling me that I was brave, and that I was meant to be the best huntsman. I guess I just try to believe in the person she always thought I was supposed to be."

"But the person she believes in isn't the real you?"

"I don't think I can say I know much about myself. I figure that if she could see something I couldn't, then it's safe to trust her."

"I see." She says, getting up, "This should keep you from dying for another day or so."

"Thank you." I say.

We wait an hour, and soon we begin to hear voices above us. "I saw a group of figures run this way." The muffled voice says. I try to sit up, but my body is in too much pain. Ilexa and Gaige prepare their weapons.

"No!" Rosa whispers, "If they catch us, you'll be punished and your friends won't get medical help." She scrawls a quick note and slips it into my jacket, then she takes a handgun from Gaige's bag, "Just lay on the ground and go along with things." The other faunus hide away in a various places out of sight.

A group of officers burst into the basement, Rosa pointing the gun at Gaige's head, "Have you come to kill me like you killed my friends?!" She yells at them.

"Put the gun down!" One of the officers yell.

"Imprison us? Free us? And then begin slaughtering us like animals?!" Her voice was filled with pain, and was convincing, "I killed them, and made my escape!"

Gaige cries out, "Help officer! This filthy faunus kidnapped us as we were trying to look for our companion!"

"Drop the gun!" The officer yells, three of them aiming at her.

"I'll kill you for yelling out!" She yells, I watch as she begins to pull the trigger, being subsequently gunned down by the officers. I scream as her blood covers the walls, crying. The officers put me on a stretcher and escort Gaige and Ilexa out. They also take the body, not looking through the rest of the basement.

The next morning, we tell our story about being separated and Nina being lost. I ask what they will do what the cart driver, and they tell me not to worry about it. Everything works out for us though, and we are escorted back to the school on a helicopter. My mind is blank, and as I look down at the town, I watch as Archer Grey is publically executed.

A Week Later
Six days ago I delivered Rosa's message to the man she told me to. The exchange took a while, and was hard to get through. I had read the note a hundred times over, and it never failed to make me cry. I haven't talked with my team since we got back, my spirits crushed.

I swallow my nervousness, this time perfectly prepared to deliver Grey's letter. I stand outside her door, as I had done the last three days. I raise my hand to knock, but shake my head, resolving to put it off again. As I begin to walk away, the door opens, "What do you want?" She says, annoyed, "I've been told you've been here before, are you some creep?"

"Uh, n-no." I say nervously, "I just have a letter from your father…" I pull the letter out and hand it to her.

She invites me inside and we sit down as she reads through it. I notice that she progressively begins to become more and more distraught. After she finishes reading it, she sighs, eyes red, but not crying yet. "Is there more?" She asks.

I shake my head, looking down, and beginning to cry, "I'm so sorry." I say, "But because of me, y-your father is…"

"Dead?" She says solemnly. I nod my head. I look up and see her wipe her tears, "Well, I doubt it was entirely your fault, whatever he was doing was probably reckless." She stands up, "Do you want tea?" I nod, and watch as she shakily makes tea. She brings it back and sits down, giving me a cup, "I can tell you have been through a lot, so maybe it'll help us both to just talk?"

The two of spend several hours talking about school, hobbies, and other things. Never bringing up the deaths, or losses in our lives. For a few moments, I began to feel better, the interaction with her clearing my mind. By the end the two of us had at least genuinely laughed five times. "Archer, you don't look like the type who has learned to deal with loss." She says near the end, "I bet you've been locked up in your room for a while right?"

"Yeah." I say, grasping my empty cup, "It's hard to carry all of that on my back you know."

She nods, "Even if it is, you don't have to carry it alone. You can ask your friends for help."

"They don't need to see me like this." I say.

"Well, I don't know what kind of people you surround yourself with, but I'm sure at least one cares." She stands up and gives me a hug, "You're a good soul, I can't imagine you being around terrible people, so give them a chance and ask for help."

"Thank you." I say, standing up, "I'll see you around?" She smiles, putting her number in my phone.

"In case your friends are scumbags." She says. That day, I walked the campus, looking for my friends.

Archer Grey's Letter

Spoiler:

Rosa Vidalia's Note

Spoiler:

Shak · Mar 28, 2016

-Team SHLD
Selena Harter

Lars Berrardi

​

Sing About Me, A Siblings Sorrow

It was a familiar sight. Albeit one of more pleasant nostalgia than what she was experiencing now. She could hear his favourite song playing in her head, as if he'd asked her to sing it to him one last time. He wasn't the first family member she'd had die though. Before him, she had attended the funeral of her grandfather. That was a different feeling. She hardly knew the man after all, and it wasn't like her life changed much afterwards. Funnily enough, it was after that day that they started frequenting church services. Her parents lost a hint of their strictness as well. With the loss of her father, it was a given that her mother would change, but Selena was too young to understand that at the time. She'd always been credited for being a smart girl. Really bright and intelligent for her age - a prodigy of sorts, but she still couldn't understand the idea of caring for something that just didn't affect her. It seemed cold, but when she looked deep into her heart, she couldn't honestly say she loved her grandfather. She just didn't know the man.

Her brother on the other hand. She couldn't bear to hear the news that he had passed. Since he was born and Selena was four years old, she'd been a mentor to her younger brother. Caring for him, helping him with his homework, making funny faces when the two were bored every time they were dragged to church by their spontaneously religious parents; and it was this same place it all started. The old white Church. It was the funeral of the old man she'd been told she was supposed to love, that really brought Selena and her brother close. It was a blurred memory, but from that day, she truly felt a sense of responsibility. It was a wakeup call, that one day, her parents could face the same fate as their parents before them.

Having been a heavily sheltered only child, it was no surprise that Selena grew up with a reliance on people. That realisation was what shaped her and her brother's relationship. She knew she'd always be there for him, and made sure he knew from a very young age. Yet, with all that said here she was, standing over his grave, for the first time. Alone. She couldn't mend a broken promise. She bit her lip at the thought of tuna and sweetcorn pizza. Unlike the pizza, it wasn't like she could replace her brother.

"Hey! Wha...have you even been searching?" Lars' voice echoed across the grassy prairie.

Selena tensed up at the sound. With a sigh, she released the tight clenching on her lower lip and slowly opened her eyes.

"The hell are you..." Lars continued, before reading the headstone that stood in front of his team-mate. Noah Harter. He didnt need to read any more than the name before he caught on. "Holy ****..." He began, but again his voice trailed off. "When did it happen?" He did his best to form some sort of consolation, but was struggling to muster any form of comforting words. Selena's half-hearted shrug, wasn't great validation. "When did you find out?" He furrowed his brows as he asked. He hoped that the answer wouldn't be anything other than 'just now'.

"Tuna pizza," She replied coldly.

"Right." With that, Lars was left speechless. He could barely murmur his response. "That long, huh? That explains the overreaction. No problem, I'll be back in twenty minutes, take your time." He sighed, turning away. He was never one to be comforting, and even when he wanted to, he was hardly good at it. It wasn't something he regretted, per se. Men had different skills: some were comforters, some talkers, some played instruments, Lars just...wasn't that guy.

"Wait! Don't you wanna...?" Selena blurted. She wasn't really sure how to word her question, but she hoped Lars knew what she was trying to ask.

"We can't both start slacking off. We got a job to do. Like I said, take your time, I'll cover your shift." He forced a laugh, before continuing on his way. "Thirty minutes!" He added.

Selena couldn't help but smile appreciatively at the ten minutes that Lars seemed to reluctantly add on. Big softy. She chuckled to herself at the thought.

***

The birds sang and the trees hummed around her as she stared intensely at the stone. The tune still played over and over in her mind. As though it could eventually bring him back. She had been standing over the stone for twenty minutes since Lars left, yet she couldn't bring herself to shed a tear. It seemed she couldn't even mourn alone. Never had she felt as pathetic as she did then.

It was then, that she noticed a girl approaching her. With the open prairie, there was no way the girl wasn't out in the open for a while. Selena had been far too focused on the stone to even considered the thought she might be attacked. At first glance, the girl seemed rather harmless. She had soft features, and a pretty face. For some reason that put Selena at ease. The solemn expression she wore on her face was quite appropriate for someone visiting a graveyard, so it came to reason that the girl shouldn't be considered a threat based on appearance. Her slender build was also a comforting sight for Selena, who felt justified in squaring the mysterious nomad up in a combat situation.

As she drew closer, whatever the girl had around her neck became more apparent. At first Selena assumed it was a fashionable scarf, but it appeared to be...feathers? Was this girl a faunus? One of the faunus they were looking for no less? She considered checking her scroll to see check, but she hesitantly removed her hand from her pocket. The girl stood at the gravestone beside Selena's brother and began paying her respects.

Selena leaned over, seeing the name ''Rory Paten' on the the stone. "Brother?" Selena enquired, still doing her best to gauge the this person she knew nothing about.

"No. Boyfriend." The girl forced a smile.

"How'd it happen?" Selena continued, feeling at ease at the prospect of conversation. The girl glanced at her in the corner of her eye, but gave no verbal response. "Sorry, I'm sure you don't really wanna talk too much about it. I was never told how my brother went." She lied. Saying that the boy was died when playing out with his new faunus friends probably wouldn't bode too well with her new acquaintance. She seemed to trust her for some reason.

"That's sad to hear. I don't even know how I'd react if my sis-" She stopped, when she realised what she was about to say. "If my sister were to...you know what I mean." She spoke softly. She was quite obviously reluctant to say what she just said. The fact that she did showed that the vulnerable flush of trust Selena felt was mutual. "Misk. Misk Cullous." She stuck out her hand.

"Selena Harter." The human smiled, shaking the outstretched hand. "I know it's selfish, but it feels really good having someone to empathise with." Selena blushed slightly. While she was angry at herself for admitting that, she couldn't deny the security she felt in being able to share it.

"I can empathise with that." Misk retorted, only half joking. The two shared an awkward laugh, before turning back to the headstone of their respective lost one. "He was a human. Which I'm sure you can tell, I'm not. Let's just say it didn't end well." Misk squinted and looked off into the distance. The owl faunus seemed like she'd already had enough of the discussion. "I watched it happen, and I-" She let out a short and shaken gasp, as she barely dodged the incoming shot. She jumped back again, very much unbalanced, as she was attacked in a flash by an incoming flash.

"Finally!" Lars blurted, throwing another kick, which Misk barely managed to block with her bladed sceptre. After blocking, her first thoughts were escape, which she wasted no time in attempting to do. Of course, she was no match for the speed of Lars who was quickly on her tail again, landing a sharp kick on her arm and knocking her to the ground. "Oh no ya dont, I've waited way too long for this ****, now you're gonna fight me like a...just get up and fight damn it!" He growled, attempting to kick her again. Somehow…he'd kicked the wrong way. "Selena!" He called to his teammate for assistance. By now she'd already drawn her bow, but was visibly struggling to hit a moving target. As Lars charged at Misk again, Selena managed to finally decide on what she felt was a decent shot, and fire her bow.

Despite her best efforts, Selena somehow managed to miss the target. What was even worse, was that the shot forced Lars to stop, as the stream of surging light trailed between the huntsman and his prey. His flashed an annoyed glare in her direction. What made things worse, was the wall of diamond that was left in the wake of the arrow, blocking any further pursuit Lars may have intended.

"Dammit!" Lars punched the shiny gemstone barrier in frustration, shattering a good portion of it then and there. He turned to head back in the direction he'd come from. As he came to pass Selena, the team SHLD member ran over.

"Lars, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-" She began, before her apologetic advance was shrugged away by her teammate. "Lars…" She persisted, her voice trailing off this time however.

"I don't need your bull**** Selena." His voice was littered with emotion. Anger, greif, disappointment; could all be heard in Lars' tone. "You could've made that shot with your eyes closed, and you know it. You sabotaged me, and the mission. That's what you meant to do." Lars continued.

"She's just as human as we are. She didn't seem like any kind of threat." Selena replied sheepishly. Lars glanced back at her. It was obvious he had so much to say in response to that comment, but he held his tongue.

Old Church: Graveyard​

Fen-Fen · Mar 31, 2016

After having dreams about swimming in the ocean, frolicking among the waves and leaping freely like a real dolphin, Lauren awoke in the infirmary, her mother overlooking her while the nurse went to tend to another patient.

A little surprised and worried having woken up in the infirmary, she asked her mother, "Mom, what happened? Am I hurt?"

Reassuring her daughter, Dahlia replied, "Oh no, you're fine, honey. You passed out back at the beach and you're just in here as a precautionary measure. I mean, your semblance is water and so the fine doctors wanted to be sure that you weren't dehydrated. You're fine, just uh, try not to overuse your semblance next time."

Lauren sighed in relief at this development. "Oh, thank god I'm not bed ridden. Otherwise…" She began to rise out of her bed, now suddenly realizing that she felt ready to go for some more laps around campus, being part of her natural hyperness and schedule. "...I'd have to miss my afternoon workout!"

Without so much as a thank you for the nurses, not occurring to her as she already felt dead set on exercising, she ran out the infirmary, not knowing that Gray was also there and severely injured with bullets in him. She wouldn't have wanted to stick around anyhow for Gray's surgery; Lauren can get flustered around excessive amounts of gore and the like, stemming from one too many times on rashly bursting in the hospital beds when she was looking for her mother when she was younger.

Mrs. Baxiao said nothing as her daughter went out to workout. Dahlia was quite used to her daughter's rash nature and did not want to stop her to see Gray yet, since she knew that Lauren would freak at seeing her teammate undergo surgery. With Dahlia's place not being the infirmary at any rate, not being employed there, she sighed and headed back to her office, nervously rubbing her hands together, hoping that the surgery goes well.

A squirrel Faunus, having just been summoned to the office of a Mrs. Dahlia Hawkins Baxiao, was looking just as fidgety as the person he was meant to deliver the news to. He had walked from his place on the city's west side and was looking stone faced, trying not to look as if he was about to deliver devastating news. It didn't take a genius to figure out it would be devastating news, given that this message involved death.

As Lauren began to take off for her run, deciding to start at the front entrance after jogging there from the infirmary, she noticed the very serious squirrel Faunus who was about to enter the campus. Finding him a little strange and out of place, with him decked out in a nondescript white button-down shirt and Bermuda shorts, looking like an old timey military officer in the tropics, she went up to the man, towering over him due to the man's relatively diminutive height of 5'4" and asked, "Excuse me sir, are you lost?"

The squirrel Faunus, caught slightly by surprise, replied in a gravelly, gruff voice, "No, m'am. I'm not lost." He lowered his voice and added, "I'm here for business reasons. Thanks for the concern though."

Lauren, not leaving well enough alone, asked in a voice of excitable intrigue, "Ooh, what kind of business? News from the mainland? A new mission for the school?! " Being of the no nonsense type, the Faunus curtly reasserted, wishing to be left alone for the purposes of client confidentiality "I'm here for business reasons. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm in a bit of a hurry and must be going." He walked stiffly onwards towards the front, not waiting for the nosy dolphin Faunus to respond. Having her interest piqued, she decided to follow the man, and see what he's up to. Man, he's like one of those military buzzkill types, no offense to Houari. Whatever he's hiding must be important. Let's try and have a little fun here~.

After looking as if she was going away, she pivoted back to the path of the man, who opened the door and entered the school. She took care to muffle her steps on the way to the entrance, and watched him disappear behind the front door before Lauren quickened her pace. After waiting for someone else to open the door, a fellow student walking towards the library, she darted through the door and relocated the man, who was going up the second floor, heading down the western wing in the direction of the teachers' offices. So, he's looking to deliver something to a teacher. Now I really gotta see. A little peek never hurt anyone… The man searched the doors for a certain name, certainly the recipient of the message. Ok, if this turns out to be like really personal and none of my business, I'll go away. But ooh, I just gotta know what this guy's going to say!

To her utter surprise, the man found the office and knocked on the third to last door: her mother's office. Oh my god, Mom's office? I'm getting a weird vibe now…

With Lauren ducking in the corner of the corridor, out of sight of the preoccupied man, she watched as the man knocked on the door. Her mother had just arrived at her office when she knocked, so there was a slight delay as she got back up from her desk to answer the door. Dahlia responded to the man, slightly off put by his very solemn demeanor. "Hello, can I help you? This is the office of Dahlia Baxiao. I'm afraid I wasn't expecting anyone at this time."

The squirrel Faunus invited himself in and closed the door behind him for privacy. Lauren crept down the corridor to where she was within earshot of the conversation, which wasn't hard given the fairly thin walls.

The man, fumbling in his shirt pocket for a note, containing some scrawled out notes about the news he received. He began to speak in a business like, formal tone as he relayed the news, starting with all the events that had transpired as they were relayed to him, about the mission of inadvertently smuggling Faunus, the human team GAIN that had fought the Grimm and protected the cart until they had been busted by the authorities. He told her that her friend, Rosa Vidalia, was one of the main people facilitating the Faunus' escape into the mainland from Menagerie. From there, according to his knowledge, there was a failed gambit in which one of the team members, had decided to take matters in his hands and threaten the life of Ms. Vidalia whilst treating a patient that had been injured during the mission. And then finally, came the part that he dreaded delivering: "And it is my deepest regret to inform you that after all of that, your friend was killed. She died under unclear circumstances, but it is confirmed that it was at the hands of the police after a failed gambit by Team GAIN."

Dahlia, who simply stood aghast and in shock and what was happening, was in abject denial of what she had just been told. "N-no, this can't be real! Last I heard, s-she was still a doctor at the hospital I worked at. Are you sure this is an accurate report? I just can't see this happening." Even as she said it, her voice strained and she clenched her fists, knowing deep down that what was said was true. Nonetheless, the man, now looking less stoic and with a more sympathetic glance towards her, said, "No ma'am, I'm sorry to say, but this report comes from a very reliable source. I am very sorry to say, but Miss Vidalia is indeed dead."

At that point, Dahlia finally cried, soft and shallow at first, with a more breathy, deep quality to her sobs as she wrapped her head around what just happened. In reply to the man's earlier prompt about the last words, she said, with a very shaky and heaving voice, "Y-yes, p-p-please tell me what she said."

The man, now a bit shaken, tried to get back to what it was that he meant to say. "She, uh, wanted you to know that she was sorry for running away. She apparently had been on the run ever since you were deported here. Miss Vidalia had been living in fear of getting caught herself and fled from Ysidrio. For the six months after you and your family left, she was on the run, until she decided to help out the other Faunus. She felt guilt over having run away from Ysidrio, and she held on to that guilt until her death. She says she's sorry for having run away to escape. Rosa only wished the best for you and your family and wanted to make it up to you."

Barely audible, Dahlia murmured, voice rising as her emotions washed over her, "Oh no no no Rosa, you don't need to apologize, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'M SORRY FOR LEAVING!" Dahlia felt anger rise up within her as she shouted that she was sorry, angry at the humans for locking them up on this godforsaken rock and angry at herself on having been caught and letting down her friends and family, most of all her only daughter. "It's my fault she's dead! If only I could have been more careful, I..." From there, she broke down into more sobs, being whirled back to raw grief. From here, the messenger excused himself from the room, leaving Dahlia to mourn her friend.

Khawill · Mar 31, 2016

Team Gain In: Sappy Stuff

I found Ilexa and Nina first, sparring in a field. Nervously, I approached the two of them, almost as if it were the first time. "H-hey guys." I say with a wave. The two of them stop, and look at me.

"Finally Archer talks to us!" Nina says with a laugh. Ilexa begrudgingly hands her a twenty, "Totally called it."

"Yeah well, if it had been tomorrow, I'd have won the bet." She replies looking at me, "Thanks a lot, ass."

"Uh, oh." I say, "I'm sorry?" The two of them stretch and I walk closer, "So, what have you guys been doing?"

Ilexa sighs, "Sparring, we're fine, the weather is nice today, yeah we should hang out or something. Any other stupid and boring things you want to say?"

I look at her, at a loss for words, Nina looks at me and laughs, "Dude, you're acting like we're going to kill you or something."

"I uh-"

Nina looks at me seriously, her face turning grave and getting close to mine, "But maybe we will." I lock eyes with her, genuinely fearing for my life before she begins laughing again, "Ilexa take a picture!" I look to Ilexa who is also cracking up at my expense. I let out a sigh of relief.

"I'm sorry I've been so distant lately." I say, looking down, "The mission just really got to me is all."

"Well considering all that happened, it'd be pretty scary if it didn't bother you at all." Ilexa replies putting an arm around my shoulder, "I mean, you've probably never even seen a dead body before huh?"

Nina puts an arm around my other shoulder, "Lexy, you should be more sensitive, you know Archer can get real emotional." I began to feel warmer, and slightly more at ease, despite the stinging truth and insult.

"No, it's fine, she is right, that was the first time I'd experienced death." I say, shivering at the memory, "I figured I could get around it by shutting myself off and being alone for a while."

"We already know that wasn't working." Nina laughs, "You cry a lot in your sleep, oh and you talk, it makes it pretty hard to stay asleep."

My face turns red, "I uh, had no idea, I'm sorry."

"Don't be." Ilexa says, rolling her eyes, "The real annoyance was hearing Nina say all night 'Can't we just lay with him and give him a hug?' every time you had a fit."

Nina scoffs, "That's what we did with that stray dog when he would whine while asleep."

"Yeah but Archer isn't a dog." Ilexa replies.

"Aw but look how adorable he is!" Nina says, poking my face, "He's totally like a dog."

I shake my head, past being embarrassed "How are you two so cheerful? Didn't the mission bother you guys as well?"

The two of them look at each other, then at me, "Archer, we've been through a lot worse, and that definitely wasn't our first death." Nina says.

"It definitely shook us up, but we don't just bottle things up, we have each other to work things out with." Ilexa continues. "We're going to be huntresses, and being able to cope with tragedy is part of the skillset a huntress needs."

"Why do you think they put us on teams?" Nina chimes in, "Most people don't have an Ilexa to help them get through tough times you know."

I can feel my heart get heavy as I resist tearing up, "So you're saying I should've talked about it with you guys?"

"That is the dumbest question I've been asked," Ilexa says, "and I've been asked if Nina is my identical twin."

I laugh at the joke, but I'm already tearing up, "Oh man, we made him cry." Nina says, "Can we give him a hug now?" Ilexa shrugs, and the two of them hug me.

"I'm sorry I'm almost got you killed." I say to Nina, hugging them back, "and I'm sorry i'm not the best leader."

"Quit saying sorry dude." Nina says, "It's not like I'm dead, and you got us all back pretty safe and sound."

"Not to mention you already agreed to me kicking your ass for it." Ilexa adds in, "So quit sounding pathetic, and lift your head up. Life only ever gets harder from here."

"And Patsy always says 'You can't control life's difficulty setting, so just get real good' or something like that." Nina says.

"That isn't how it goes at all!" Ilexa snaps, "You completely butchered it! It's You can't control life's difficulty setting, but you can control how well you handle it.'"

"Really? I distinctly remember the word good somewhere in there." Nina replies, thinking, "You sure it wasn't 'You can't control life's difficulty setting, so control how good you are at going through it?"

"Good isn't even an uncommon word! How would that be the only word that you distinctly remember from the phrase!?" Ilexa says. The two of them argue, and I watch, smiling and feeling a little more at ease.

"Hey! Archer!" I hear Gaige's voice from behind me, "Welcome back to." He says with a smile.

"Oh hey Gaige." I reply waving at him, "I guess I am."

"Don't worry too much about it." He says, "A little time alone to think never hurt. Do you feel better?"

"Yeah, I do a little bit." I reply, "I guess I just needed to talk things out."

"I get that, look man, you should tell me whenever something is bothering you from now on, we're a team you know." He says warmly, "As our leader, we need you to be in top condition, and as your friend it pains me to see you sleep so poorly."

"Yeah I-m sor--" I stop myself, taking a breath, "From now on, I'll put more faith in my team, and I'll be here for you guys too, if you need me or not."

"Oh wow, that was a pretty leader-y thing to say." Nina says, "And you just made it up on the spot to, ooh, it gives me shivers."

I look to Ilexa who is glaring at Gaige, "Hey Ilexa, when do you want to do that match."

She pauses, then looks at me with a smile, "Let's go right now. I've been itching to kick the tar out of you and Gaige."

"Yeah, it's no fun to spar with someone mentally linked to you, its pretty much pointless." Nina says.

"Fine, but let's get dinner first." Gaige says clapping his hands with a smile, "I know a good restaurant, I'll pay half the bill!"

Foxrally · Apr 8, 2016

Jairo & Sahn Xill

Mira Cullous Nel Phelia

Team JSMN
Cold as STLL

Dozens of small, furry, indistinguishable jungle critters could be seen dashing out the way as the lumbering spider woman and her not-so-lumbering owl partner made their way through the underbrush. Both were sweating heavily - it was about midday and the temperature had shot up since the already-hot morning air had cleared. Mira led the way, cutting violently through low hanging vines and shrubs with her sword, all while muttering slightly audible curses about the weather and her teammates. Her teammates of which two were soundly asleep - Jairo on Sahn's shoulders and Nel cradled in her arms.

The pair trekked on silently for a while. "Aren't you tired?" Mira suddenly asked, turning to Sahn.

"Not really." Sahn shrugged. "We can stop if you want to rest."

"No, not that kind of tired. I just mean, aren't you tired of doing that?"

"Tired of what?" Sahn asked, raising an eyebrow. "They're not really heavy." she said, readjusting her brother on her shoulders while keeping an eye on Nel. "I can carry four times this weight with just one arm." she added.

Nel shifted slightly in Sahn's arms, the hawk faunus curling up slightly and while burying her face into Sahn. A small yawn escaped her lips as she did this, before she began to snore softly, all while mumbling under her breath. "B-But... I don't wanna feed grandma bacon in the bathtub..."

Mira sighed in frustration. "No, not that! I mean..." she took a deep breath to calm herself. "We've known each other for a while now. And this whole time, I've seen you handle Jairo and Nel's behavior the entire time without batting an eye. Don't you just... Get tired of it sometimes? Looking after people?"

Sahn smiled slightly, as if amused by the owl faunus' question, and readjusted Nel's position in her arms. "I do think Nel reminds me of some family. It's a long story." she said, before glancing up at her sleeping brother.

"Seriously, though... Jairo treats you like absolute dirt, and Nel's just... outright insane! I can't be the only one seeing that, am I?" Mira asked, cutting down another vine.

"My brother's a little... yes. Don't take him for what he is. But to me, he is the greatest person I know." Sahn replied. Mira raised her eyebrows in surprise, as if asking her to go on. The spider woman chuckled. "I remember when we were children... When mother birthed us, we were four. Jairo, Jak, Fii and myself."

"You had two other siblings?"

"Yes. We were special, too. Our kind are usually born in groups - either four males, or a single female. We were two males, and two females." Sahn replied. "Mother had our father killed for bringing such abnormality to the clan. Everyone blamed it on me and my sister - there were too many females. One of us had to kill the other to survive. Jairo didn't let them."

"...what? Your brother?" Mira asked, surprised.

Sahn nodded. "Yes. Jairo gave us independence. He taught us to think for ourselves. If the clan had found out, they would have killed him on the spot. Though-" she was cut off by a loud snore originating Nel. It appeared that team JSMN were reaching the end of the forest and the base of the mountain, too. "I'm sorry, I'm talking too much." Sahn said.

---------------

As the four faunus began approaching the exit to the forest and the sounds of birds and insects began to die, a distinctively different sound could be heard some distance away. "Sahn, hold up." Mira instructed, stopping holding her hand up to stop her teammate.

After a few moments of listening in silence, it sounded more and more like voices conversing. "Are these...?" Sahn asked, turning to Mira.

"They can't be. Pickup airship shouldn't have come until tomorrow. Wake these two up and follow me." Mira replied quietly, pulling out her weapon as she made her way silently through the much emptier outskirts of the jungle.

Sahn gently shook the two 'passengers' she had been carrying for the past couple of hours, shaking Nel in her arms and nudging Jairo's arm with her head. The spider faunus was the first to wake up.

"Right... We done with this mess, or what?" he asked groggily, wiping off a small stain of web-drool with his hand and stretching his other three arms.

At the same time, Nel woke up from her own slumber. "No, don't wake me up... I was having the best dream!" she mumbled, shutting her eyes as hard as she could. "Lemme -oof!" she grunted as Sahn let go of her, causing her to drop to the ground.

"Quiet, you three!" Mira hushed. As team JSMN hid behind a tall boulder, Mira motioned for Nel to come closer and take a look at the four people standing some distance away. They still couldn't hear their conversation well enough, but they seemed to be standing around something they could all clearly see - the delivery crate. "Nel, are those the people you saw dropping from an airship earlier?" Mira whispered. "Take a peek and tell me if they look like humans or faunus."

Nel scratched her chin. "Well, I couldn't really see what they looked like from all the way back there, but I do remember seeing four people. Let me have a look!" she said, gently pushing Mira aside and peeking behind the boulder. Though they were a little difficult to look at through the shrubs around them, she could hear their conversation fairly well.

---------------

Tenerus and the others had been waiting for any sign of the other human team for at least twenty minutes, but there had been no further sign or indication that anybody else was around at all. He let out a gentle sigh and ran his hands through his hair, it was greasy and sweat ridden in the blazing heat. He was a reptillian faunus, but his more directly human features were still subject to the turmoils of the body. Speaking softly, he called out to Lucinda whom sat quietly on a rock nearby... her skin seemed to glow rather than sweat and overall, she seemed rather comfortable compared to everyone else.

"Luci, do you have a hair tie handy? The heat is killing me and I don't need this mopsticking to my face..."

She tossed a hair tie from her own hair idly in his direction, knowing he would catch it either way with his semblance, a segment of her own hair drooped down and covered half of her face, though she didn't seem to mind much.

Sullivan rested on his massive sword as if it were a can for support and whined weakly. "Teeeeen.... can't we just go? Nobody is coming..."

Liara stood up as regally as she could manage, as was expected for someone working so closely with red and blue dust, she seemed to have a very high level of control over her own body temperature, though beads of sweat were still visible on her forehead.

Tenerus pondered their words, perhaps it truly was better to just leave at this point. He planted his blade into the ground, his hands resting on the pommel as a knight errant, a position he often took while thinking... as it allowed quick reactions.

Little did he know he was being watched, as Nel spied him from the shadows.

"Whoa..." Nel mumbled to herself, her eyes fixated on Tenerus. This tall 'human' didn't appear to be a human at all. Through her enhanced falcon eyesight, she could clearly notice that something was off with his eyes - they weren't human. Next to him were the two females of the group, one blue-haired and the other sporting dark green hair. They seemed to be resting or waiting around a large rusty crate, which had clealy been pried open and was full with small, strange green cards. Nel took a quick mental note of this, and turned back to Mira. "Okay, so... They're-"

"Fine, fine, I'll get down! Bloody web, you're persistent!" Jairo complained loudly behind them, completely unaware of the group in front of them. "What are you two featherheads doing back there? Let's get moving!"

All heads - human and faunus - turned towards the spider siblings. Mira buried her face in her hands. Their cover had been blown.

Tenerus felt his eyes widening as he saw the other group before him, it was obvious as sin what they were, who they were. His worst nightmare was suddenly realized and so soon too...

"Faunus." He muttered quietly under his breath.

A few moments of complete silence passed as the two teams looked at one another in silence.

"SAHN, IS THAT A HUMAN TEAM?" Jairo turned to his sister and pointed in front of him as he began to hyperventilate.

"Uh, actually... I think that's the crate we came for." his sister replied.

"No, for f-"

"There's something in front of the crate though."

"SAHN, IS THAT A HUMAN TEAM?" Jairo repeated, all four of his hands digging into his sisters' shoulders as his four eyes darted back and forth between her and STLL. "They're humans, right?" he whispered in her ear.

"Yep." Sahn nodded.

"HUMANS!" Jairo screamed, and wasted no time pulling out his violin.

"Jairo, no! Wait-" Mira raised her hand to stop him, but too late - the spider faunus had already pulled the trigger. A large net fired from the instrument, heading straight for the first human in front of it. Thankfully, the humans were no regular civilians, and were skilled fighters as well. Tenerus' eyes flashed briefly as the white aura that signified his semblance flowed freely from his form in a gentle haze, his blade moved through the air on instinct, the net was made of easily cut material and split like butter to a blade as well refined and maintained as Tens'.

"F-Faunus!" Sullivan exclaimed, his voice filling with an anger unlike his usual self. "They never told us we'd have to deal with freaks!" It was the other male. He raised his sword, and slashed it sideways, much to Tenerus' surprise. The movement seemed to create a sort of sonic blast, which Nel and Mira barely avoided by dashing to the side. The unfortunate victim of the blast however - their former hiding-boulder - smashed into bits as the wave made impact. All members of both teams raised their weapons, ready to defend themselves, when suddenly both of the leaders spoke up.

"No, stop!", "Enough!" Mira and Tenerus called out simultaneously.

"Sullivan you need to lower your weapon right now! What did we say about striking without consent or warning?! We are a team! You wait for my orders!" The panic in his voice was evident and he spoke with a much more volatile and direct authority than before, causing Sullivan to wince slightly.

"B-but Tenerus... they attacked-"

"I had it under control, just because they're prepared to leap before they look doesn't mean you respond in turn like an animal backed into the corner."

"But- I..."

"Sullivan!"

The shorter of the two men quieted himself, cursing under his breath and looking to the side with regret and anger, but obeying orders all the same. He seemed to have a lot of respect for his leader, judging by his primal expression it took a lot for him to hold back against these particular enemies.

Tenerus looked up, his eyes meeting those of the avian faunus whom seemed to be in charge of the opposing group. He felt like he recognised her... almost... from somewhere, somehow, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. But there was something more pressing on his mind, after the destruction of the boulder, an uneasy sense of dread and an very getle rumbling sound in the distance perforated and spread throughout the area like a sickening wave.

"You seem to possess some semblance of sense so I ask that you listen to me. " He spoke calmly again, his normal calm regained. "Something feels very wrong here... you have to leave. Immediately."

"You can feel it too?" Mira asked. "The-"

She suddenly felt someone tap her on the shoulder - it was Nel. "Ah, Mira... I hate to be the one to interrupt our tea party, but... we may have a problem." Both teams looked to where she was pointing. Tenerus heard Liara give an audible gasp, Lucinda had already drawn her swords.

A gigantic stampede of death stalkers were approaching, and fast.

A joint post of Foxrally, Deceptio and Frozen Heart

[Other FULL] [IC] As the Dust Settles; A RWBY RP [M] [EPILOGUE]

More options

Groc

Brooke Webster, Reese Kells, Oswald Carotene, and Salazar Jones
Menagerie Sewers - Entrance

Sephear

Believe in the you that believes in cheese

Letting blood lead to bloodletting

Khawill

<3

Jay

[font=Brawler][color=#91a8d4][i]Here comes the boi

Sephear

Believe in the you that believes in cheese

Learning to be patient(s)

Iceshadow3317

Fictional Writer.

Stinging Bea

Khawill

<3

Sonata

Don't let me disappear

Groc

Shak

Khawill

<3

GreyBidoof

You used a Master Ball on the GreyBidoof!

SkyisUmbreon

But it Refused

Light and Darkness Dragon

Want a Sprite Cranberry? 🎄

Khawill

<3

Shak

Fen-Fen

Me but more fabulous

Khawill

<3

Foxrally

[img]http://i.imgur.com/omi0jS3.gif[/img]

[Other FULL] [IC] As the Dust Settles; A RWBY RP [M] [EPILOGUE]

Brooke Webster, Reese Kells, Oswald Carotene, and Salazar Jones Menagerie Sewers - Entrance​

Believe in the you that believes in cheese

Letting blood lead to bloodletting

<3

[font=Brawler][color=#91a8d4][i]Here comes the boi

Believe in the you that believes in cheese

Learning to be patient(s)

Fictional Writer.

<3

Don't let me disappear

<3

You used a Master Ball on the GreyBidoof!

But it Refused

Want a Sprite Cranberry? 🎄

<3

Me but more fabulous

<3

[img]http://i.imgur.com/omi0jS3.gif[/img]

Brooke Webster, Reese Kells, Oswald Carotene, and Salazar Jones
Menagerie Sewers - Entrance