Hey guys! Anyone else celebrating?! I know I am! With cheesecake and (American-)Chinese takeout! This is a momentous day! Anyways, you're probably all busy with the new episode, which I - as of now - haven't had the pleasure of viewing yet. So, I'll keep this short... with what might be one of my longest chapters... fail...

Disclaimer! I don't. Don't even think that I own RWBY. Also, if there are many grammatical errors, forgive me. I kind of told someone I would get these chapters out by today...


Team MAPL and Team ATWM

The night drew on like a dull blade being dragged through wood, as ten teens rapidly approached their destinies. Nothing could stop them. No matter how many Grimm moved to stand in their way, they cut them down without hesitation.

A deadly tag team was forming among Marron Heltinne and Waxyn Pequod. The tall turquoise-haired boy fired his "Nemesis" and succeeded in pinning the white head of his serpentine opponent against a tree, all while his partner dueled the black head. With practiced patience Marron evaded the snake's swift strikes and deflecting ones she couldn't with her shield. Every time she evaded the serpent's ridiculous maw she would strike back before bracing herself for another attack.

"Marron!" Waxyn cried to his tough compatriot, gesturing towards the pinned creature expressively.

Understanding him completely despite only using one word, Marron prepared to follow up on their strategy. She started to back away from the Taijitu's black head, while still keeping up a strong offensive. The powerful creature crept up on Marron, backing her into a tree. But she still held strong, while her partner prepared the instrument of the Grimm's demise.

Skillfully propelling himself up unto a tree above the rampaging beast using his weapon, Waxyn prepared the finishing blow. With one end focused on Marron and the other stuck to a tree, he loaded "Nemesis" with another barbed harpoon tip. Utilizing the firing mechanism on his weapon, he unleashed pointed tip after pointed tip into the creature's body. None of them caused lasting damage but now the creature was pinned to the forest floor.

The King Taijitu rotated and gyrated on the forest floor, desperately trying to free itself from its entrapment. Once secured, Marron hopped unto the Grimm's back and prepared to finish it off. She engaged her semblance to allow her to remain atop the struggling creature. Then, with a mighty downwards thrust, the young woman plunged the sword into the serpent giving it one last breath before there were no more.

"That was great!" Waxyn called from the tree above the Grimm carcass and his closest friend. "You were great and my plan was impeccable. Wouldn't you agree?" The tall man grinned, feeling nothing but pride and elation for pulling off their improvised strategy.

"Your plan?" Marron asked with an eyebrow raised.

"Yeah, my plan. What do you think?" Waxyn jumped from the tree, facilitating his fall by stabbing a harpoon head attached to a thick, flexible chord into its trunk. He landed right next to Marron with a shy smile carefully etched into his face.

Marron crossed her arms and leaned to one side. "Personally, I think it could use a little work."

"Well, it was improvised."

"Then it wasn't a plan. Besides, we were only able to pull it off because you got lucky and I – somehow – understood what you were thinking." Marron continued walking north and towards their objective. Without a word, Waxyn followed. They were so close.

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"I think that could have been done way better. Don't you agree, Phlox?" Lupine crowed while narrowly avoiding a swipe from an Ursa Major. The Grimm's ferocious red eyes bored into the duo. Its anger could be felt even by Phlox and Lupine, for it deeply resented the two for taking its assault so casually.

"Shut up, Lu," Phlox groaned impatiently, rolling her eyes as she did so. She snorted another pinch of dust and wildly shook her head as her eyes and dress began to glow in the same color.

"Oh, so it's 'Lu' now?" Lupine retorted while sliding around the Ursa's body, engaging his semblance as he did so. "Wisp" was what it was called. It caused the young man's body to give off a dull purple glow and black wisps of smoke. With this ability he could move at incredible speeds, scale tall structures, and levitate. In order to use this ability effectively, Lupine has to be at close proximity with a large object. Luckily, the Ursa Major was enough to fulfil this need.

Phlox rolled her eyes again, this time choosing to ignore the young man. With Lupine distracting the beast, she eventually created the right mixture of dust to finish it off. She inhaled another puff of the smoke arising from the ivy-adorned tube nicknamed "Nirvana" and sputtered a bit as it took effect in her body. "Alright Lupine, I'm done! Get out of there!"

Obliging her command, Lupine gave the Ursa one Gatling-empowered slash from his weapon nicknamed "Zephyr" and hopped away relying on his Wisp to push off and create a great distance between him and the Grimm.

Once Lupine was out of the blast radius, Phlox rained hell upon the Ursa. Both literally and figuratively she summoned sharp pillars of ice to restrain the creature as fiery rain fell upon it. The Grimm roared in indignation and confusion but soon began to whimper in pain. Eventually the creature was completely restrained. It struggled in its prison, but it was no use.

Phlox spawned another pillar of ice and slammed down the Ursa's gullet, preventing any more distracting sounds from emitting from that location. Then, she gathered as much dust-empowered aura as she possibly could and two small azure glyphs appeared in her palms. With a mighty palm thrust, a bolt of lightning shot out of her hands striking the Ursa and killing it instantaneously.

"Whooo! Go Phlox!" Lupine cheered from the sidelines, until he turned to gaze upon his friend and love, only to see her collapse to her knees while breathing heavily. "Phlox darling!" Lupine rushed over to her location and put his arms around her comfortingly.

Normally Phlox would have pushed him off, but she didn't have the strength. Her heart rate had intensified, her breath came out ragged, a numbing feeling spread throughout her brain, and a cold sweat began to run down her body. 'They're just side effects. I'll be fine. This happens all the time,' she frantically told herself, despite knowing that this trip was far worse than anything else she had experienced in recent times. She fell backwards, only to be caught by Lupine. Looking into his eyes, Phlox suddenly felt comforted. While her body violently responded to her "intake", she felt anything but worry. Staring into those sky-blue eyes she felt satisfied, knowing that out of all the teens here, she got to be paired with her closest friend in the world.

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Unlike the powerful teams of Marron and Waxyn, and Phlox and Lupine, poor Teel wasn't doing so well. The young woman was tightly wound around the talon of a Nevermore, flying quickly through the night sky. The avian monster was moving at speeds far too fast for the young woman to jump off and try to catch herself. Besides, even if she tried that, there was a chance that the bird would notice and swoop down to eat her. Instead, she attempted to do whatever she possibly could do to impair the Grimm's movement.

"Yah! Take that you winged asshole!" Teel began to slash at the bird's wings and body using an elongated energy beam, erupting from her gourd. "Grasscutter" has the capability of slashing through steel at its highest setting. Unfortunately, in its "whip" form no such thing was possible. This resulted in more annoyance than actual pain for the Nevermore.

Once she noticed that her attacks were doing nothing to the bird, Teel withdrew her weapon and unleashed her plan B. She turned "Grasscutter" on and to its highest setting. A four-foot long katana made of energy spawned from the weapon and immediately, she began slashing at the Grimm's other talon.

Teel smiled at her near instantaneous results. The Nevermore's flight path began to change; it gave off a shriek and started to guide itself towards the ground. "Yes!" she cried out in elation.

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Adonis and Mallow walked steadily towards their destination. Neither was sure of how far they were from their destination. But at least they knew where they were going. That was something.

Every step was spent in silence and poor Mallow couldn't help but feel as if he was slowing down the behemoth in front of him. 'He's so much better than me. And he has clearly has been in many combat situations before. Maybe I should ask how many.' But before Mallow could even open his mouth to ask, a powerful shriek pierced the air.

"What is that?" Mallow whispered hesitantly, while whirling around trying to spot the source of the sound.

Adonis didn't say a word and instead extended his sword from the folds of his trench coat. He stared up at the sky and loosened his jaw to prepare for impact.

Mallow continued to whirl around. "Adonis, do you have any idea where that came from?" When the larger boy didn't respond, Mallow turned towards him and tried to get his attention. "Adonis? You alright? Do you have any…?"

' The jet-black haired young man couldn't finish his sentence as something struck him hard from behind and sent him flying forward.

"Aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!" The world spun around him and the wind rushed in his ears and into his face. Everything in his vision had become a wild, twisting blur of incomprehensible colors. Once he was convinced that he would collide with the ground and that would be the end of him, something slammed into his back and brought clarity to his world.

Mallow looked around still dizzy and disoriented but otherwise fine. Until he realized that he was still floating in the sky. 'What happened?' the young man thought to himself, before getting his answer after inspecting something rough in his back. A green scythe-like hook was somehow attached to his back, without rending his clothes or destroying his spine. Attached to the hook was a long chain that connected to a strange sight: three of the teens he had seen on the cliff were onboard a Nevermore, holding on in one way or another.

Teel was still holding onto one of the Grimm's talons while still slashing apart its other leg. It was only barely attached by a strip of rough skin and a few red strands.

While the girl with the gourd continued to brutalize one of the monster's legs, Adonis was currently on the other side of its body. Using his giant, grey gauntlets, the behemoth utilized his incredible strength to unleash a force akin to a meteor shower upon his target: the Nevermore's head.

The chain that rescued Mallow had appeared to emerge from the sleeves of his trench coat. Seeing this, the young man suddenly became worried that he might be dropped. He continued to stare up at the awkward fight, completely oblivious to the trees slamming into him and shattering upon impact.

As all this was happening, the fox faunus Amber had somehow ended up on the Nevermore's wing holding on for dear life. The poor girl was still following the duo when the Nevermore accidentally dipped low enough for Adonis to strike and in the chaos, one of the beast's wings had slashed through the tree she was hiding in, making her leap randomly to safety. Unfortunately, she ended up on the creature itself.

Mallow stared in awe at this sight of Adonis viciously beating the bird without caution or fear. Little did he know, Adonis had actually jumped on to the Nevemore using, what had to be, yet another weapon. 'How does he have so many?' Mallow asked still astounded at this face. Most Hunters restricted themselves to just one weapon and endeavored to become masters of their chosen tool. And yet, somehow this guy had four.

Unfortunately for poor Mallow, he wasn't able to finish his thought. As he continued to unknowingly level the forest with the back of his head, he slammed into the tree containing Lupine and Phlox, as the latter recovered from her "trip". They wrapped around the chain, holding on for dear life.

"What's happening!?" Lupine roared over the roar of the wind and trees moving around them.

"I don't know!" Phlox and Mallow called at the same time. They paused for a second and looked at each other.

Phlox's eyes widened. "You're that weird guy from the airship! That one who just wouldn't talk to me!"

"That's nice darling, but can you please think of a way to get us out of this!" Lupine narrowly avoided the trunk of a rather thick tree, as well as a cloud of gnats. He couldn't run into those. They would mess up his face and hair.

"Shut your trap, I'm thinking!" Phlox looked upwards to see what was attached on the other end of the chain. Her eyes widened at the strange sight. Teel was now clinging desperately to her talon, unable to continue her assault on the other. Adonis was pressed against the Grimm's body, incapable of attacking due to the extra two people weighing him down. Luckily though, Amber had managed to get herself into a comfortable position and begun to slash at the monster's eyes with "Gumiho", while staying at a safe distance due to her weapon's reach.

Mallow traced Phlox's gaze towards the Grimm in the sky and suddenly, a bulb lit in his head. "I've got an idea! Listen to me!" Mallow called towards the two other people sharing his chain.

"Shut up, I'm thinking!" Phlox announced once more, completely ignoring him.

"Come on! Just listen to me!" Mallow screamed at Phlox.

"Please, I…"

"'You're thinking', I know!" Mallow interjected, with a very annoyed expression on his face. "Listen to me! We have to increase the weight we're exerting on the chain. It might be our only way to land. After all, Nevermore's have a nearly impenetrable hide that…" Mallow paused, realizing his deviation, correcting himself, and continuing on with his point. "Ignore that. We can't kill this thing. But we may be able to get off safely."

Phlox and Lupine were both rapt with attention. This seemed like a good idea and had just the method of completing it.

"I can weigh us down further," Phlox volunteered. She gestured at Adonis. "What about him, he looks like he's having problems."

"Adonis is strong enough to stay attached to the Nevermore, no matter what we do," Mallow said reassuringly, mostly to himself.

"Sounds great," Lupine said confidently. However, this feeling was not reflected in his eyes, which were of a deep doubt. He looked at Phlox, who shared his mentality.

Picking up on this, Mallow said, "Guys, just trust me. This will work."

"If you say so…" Lupine said, while Phlox executed Mallow's strategy. Calling upon the remaining energy in her body, she began forming large, icy structures on the chain.

The results of the plan became evident immediately. The Nevermore shrieked once more in great pain as it began to rapidly descend into the tree line. Adonis roared as the chain holding three people, plus a large, amorphous ice sculpture dug into his arm and back, threatening to pull him off the beast. But he refused to fall. He would never give up, not when he was this close.

Eventually, the Nevermore came so close to the ground that Phlox and Lupine were able to safely hop off. Unfortunately, Mallow was still attached to the hook.

Voicing his slight (only slight) discontent of being left behind he screamed, "Guys, what about me!"

"Oh sorry!" Phlox called before grabbing several handfuls of sea-green dust and stuffing it into her mouth and nose. Her body began to glow spectacularly, much to the chagrin of Lupine.

"Darling, don't do that! It's dangerous." The young man reached towards Phlox trying to pull her hand away, only to be struck with a sudden gust of wind and launched several feet away.

"Don't call me darling." Manipulating the wind around the Nevermore, she began to disrupt the lift underneath its wings and soon it came plummeting to the ground. She then, manipulated the winds to catch the remaining teens and separate them from the Grimm. She guided them calmly to the ground, while sweating profusely and occasionally coughing hoarsely. Once everyone was safe on the ground, she let her hold of the Nevermore slack, and the Grimm escaped, its right leg barely attached.

The group of teens slowly collected themselves from the harrowing experience. They were all exhausted and ready for a long rest.

As they caught their breath, Amber and Teel realized that they were the only non-paired teens here and swiftly made each other's acquaintance.

Lupine held and rocked Phlox as she recovered from her massive "intake".

Mallow clutched the ground in reverence, so happy to be atop earthly foundation. "Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you." He continued to bleat in happiness until an earth-shattering roar interrupted his appreciation of the ground.

The group of six teens turned to see a pack of Beowolves chasing a worried Maverick Casco. He activated his boosters to make narrow escapes. Dropped several charges to kill off and/or injure as many Grimm as he possibly could.

"Hey guys," Maverick called out towards the six teens on the other side of the clearing. "I could use a little help over here."

Responding to his call, all six teens got to their feet, drew their weapons and charged. Amber's "Gumiho" shifted from a long waldo to a small cannon that was held at her hip, the blade rested underneath the weapon and she fired several explosive shots. Teel held her "Grasscutter", kind of like a rifle, and fired several dart-like projectiles from its nozzle. Phlox inhaled a handful of red dust and began launching small burst of fire from glyphs in her palms. Lupine fired the Gatling guns on his arms. Adonis drew his sword, shifted it into its bow form, and began firing his shrapnel-poles. And Mallow didn't do anything but run.

The Beowolves collapsed under fire, their lines thinning rapidly. Then, from the forest Marron and Waxyn appeared and began tearing down the Grimm from behind. With nine of the ten participants of initiation in attendance, the pack was utterly destroyed.

With the danger gone, the teens gathered around each other and caught their breaths under the starlight. No words word exchanged. In fact, most of them didn't even remember the other people's names.

Mallow wanted to say something to break the ice, lighten the mood, anything. But once again he was interrupted by the shriek of the Nevermore.

Every teen in attendance, looked up at the sky and at the ferocious monster gliding about.

Upon hearing the Nevermore's call, Mallow found a newfound confidence he did not know until recently. "Alright guys, I think we're safe from the Nevermore right now. We need to find out where the temple is and…"

Maverick casually appointed to the other end of the clearing they were in and at what appeared to be a decrepit circular, stone structure.

"Oh…"

The group of nine teens headed over towards the temple, at its center where five stone pedestals. Each held a differently colored coin. There was a green one, a red one, an orange one, a brown one, and a white one.

"Interesting…" Mallow said, picking up the red coin and raising it to the up to his eye.

"There's only five of them here," Maverick observed, looking around the pedestals. "I guess that means that each pair should just take one. Right guys?" The young man reached over and looked over the white coin and pocketed it.

"Makes sense," Marron said while picking up the brown coin for her and Waxyn. The other teens nodded in agreement, sharing his sentiments and pocketing their own coins. Mallow took the red coin for himself and Adonis. Phlox placed the green coin in her pouch for herself and Lupine. Marron grabbed hold of the brown coin and gave it to Waxyn to hold onto to. With nothing else to take, Teel slipped the orange coin into "Grasscutter".

The group of teens stood there for a while, slowly beginning to realize what they just achieved. Their mission is complete. All they had to do now was return to their origin point and scale the Beacon cliffs and they would have made it into the school. Each paused to reflect upon their experiences from where they stood now and where they came from. Only then, every single one of them remembered what Ozpin said, "One more thing. Since we only allow teams of four at Beacon, two of you - regardless of your success - will be eliminated." Everyone paused and sized each other up. One of them will not be able to go to Beacon. One of them will be gone. The brief moment of silence only passed for a few more seconds until all hell broke loose.

Everyone broke into a sprint running away from the broken temple and towards the Cliffside. Adonis grabbed a hold of Mallow and placed him on his back to prevent the young man from slowing him down. Unfortunately, as the teens continued their flight to success, the nearly one-legged Nevermore caught sight of potential prey and swopped down to finish them off.

"The Nevermore is coming back!" Mallow yelled, grabbing the attention of everyone in attendance. The creature flew close to them and unleashed a hail of sharp black, barbed feathers unto the teens. Each of them masterly avoided the Grimm's projectiles until they found cover underneath the trees.

"Damn, I nearly chopped that things leg off and it still wants more?!" Teel remarked incredulously.

"Nevermore are very tenacious," Adonis said gruffly with his even, deep, gravelly voice. "All monsters are, but these things will never leave you alone, unless you kill them."

Mallow carefully observed the reactions of the other participants in the vicinity. Many of them nodded slowly, acknowledging the logic in his statement; although, a few of the teenagers seemed to be experiencing more than agreement, specifically Phlox, Amber, and Teel. Those three appeared to be absolutely enthralled by the behemoth and his deep, calm voice. The young man laughed silently to himself. 'Adonis is pretty attractive isn't he?' he thought to himself.

"Alright, let's kill it then," Maverick said, his confidence suddenly returning. "If that's the only way to stop it, then we have no other option."

"Sounds great," Lupine said with equal parts calm and sarcastic. "Any ideas on how to actually do that?"

An awkward silence followed.

While his fellow participants tried to think of a plan, the gears in Mallow's head had already begun to turn. Using some of the knowledge he already knew about the monster, Mallow reviewed everything he possibly could, from its response to pain as well as his, already successful, plan to escape its clutches. "Guys! I've got a plan!"

For a lack of a better idea, everyone in attendance turned towards him, expectantly.

"Well, sort of. I uh… well I'll need to know a few things first. For one, Teel! How did you get on the Nevermore originally?" Mallow looked over towards the red-eyed individual, awaiting her response.

The young woman's eyes suddenly became downcast. She looked away embarrassingly and said, "I was dozing off in a tree, when it swooped down and grabbed me." She refused to meet anyone's eyes, especially Adonis's.

"Why were you in a tree?" Lupine asked with an eyebrow raised.

Teel huffed. "None of your concern."

Mallow waved his arms in the air to reclaim everyone's attention. "Okay good. I was just wondering because in order to kill that thing, we need to ground it. None of us can fly, so… we'll need that thing on the ground just to have a fighting chance."

"I don't mean to be contrary," Maverick said, his tone, slightly mocking. "But, I actually can fly. These thrusters on my boots are quite powerful. It will use a lot of energy but I can probably raise myself to the Nevermore's altitude."

"Great, that will be helpful." Mallow looked up at the sky, carefully tracking the Grimm's movement. "We'll need someone to be bait, in order to convince the Grimm to come near the ground. Someone needs to do what Teel did and wait in the tree, exposed to the bird. The rest of us will hide within the branches, and when the Grimm comes, we'll all grab on to it and try to weigh it down. We'll improvise from there. So guys, what do you think of that plan?"

A chorus of unsure agreements followed this question.

Taking that as a sign to go forward, Mallow suddenly felt an urge of confidence. This is what he had always wanted to do. "Okay, just one question. Who's going to be the bait?"

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Mallow trembled like a leaf as the wind night wind blew past him. He had to restrain the urge to either wet himself, break down crying, or both. 'I'm dead. I'm dead. I'm dead. I'm dead,' were his only thoughts as he awaited the Nevermore.

"Why am I doing this?" Mallow asked himself worriedly as he noticed the giant bird approached him.

"I'm sorry," Teel said with a shred of remorse. "That monster probably remembers the last time it picked me up and everyone else isn't expendable."

"Are you saying that I'm expendable?!" Mallow said in a panic.

"Not quite. It's just that you have no combat…" Teel began.

"Yes you are," Maverick said harshly to finish Teel's statement.

"Thank you, thank you very much. You guys are…" Mallow began sarcastically, slowly finding himself returning to his old state despite his near death situation.

"Shut up, it's coming, we gotta job to do," Phlox said frantically interrupting Mallow's sarcastic statement while snorting a mixed variety of powder.

"Wha-?" Poor Mallow couldn't finish his statement as the Nevermore slammed into the tree everyone was all hiding in, attempting to devour the petite young man.

"Pile on everyone!" Maverick cried, as all eight other teens jumped after him and began trying to weight the Grimm down. Lupine unleashed a stream of bullets into the Nevermore's tough hide. Waxyn jabbed his harpoon into the area beneath the creature's left wing. Maverick began to unload clip after clip into the area beneath the creature's right wing. Amber resumed her position of aggressively slashing at its eyes. Teel finally managed to separate the monster's right leg from its body, eliciting a screech from the avian Grimm's maw. Mallow desperately clung to its leg. Phlox summoned a giant chunk of ice around the Nevermore's left leg. And with a grim determination in his eyes, Adonis recommenced his assault. But of all the attackers (besides Teel), only Marron succeeded in tearing through its hide.

Engaging her semblance, the young woman managed to tear a hole in the creature's flesh, fresh blood streamed outwards missing her completely but landing on the already blood-stained Mallow.

Despite all nine of their efforts, they couldn't seem to avail anything. For some reason, they couldn't seem to weight the monster down.

"What do we do now?!" Maverick roared as he reloaded his handguns, wind utterly flogging the young man.

"We could always try and fly it into the Beacon Cliffside," Amber yelled timidly, speaking for the first time since they had all gathered.

The nine teens looked at each other and still remembering what Ozpin had said… and discarding it. If they didn't work together than no one was making it there – except for Adonis, but then he wouldn't be able to attend without a partner.

"Okay guys, let's fly a…a…bird?" Amber asked, somewhat unsure now.

"Yeah, let's do it!" Lupine roared with the wind.

The nine teens began to move with the aid of hand gestures and Amber's supervision. They prodded the creature with stabs and gunshots to move it towards the cliff. When that failed, they began to force the creature's body in the right direction by forcefully manipulating its wings, utilizing the chains that seemed to spawn out of Adonis's cloak. Soon, they had become a cohesive unit and were soon, on their way to the Beacon cliffs. They collectively cheered in triumph for they had won. Unfortunately, the feeling was not to last. The Nevermore began to jerk violently, attempting to throw everyone off and it succeeded for all except Maverick.

Now, seven teens collectively screamed in terror as their lives flashed before their eyes. They might be able to save themselves with a similar landing strategy, used at the beginning of initiation. The only problem was the Nevermore, which had swooped around while flaunting its obvious advantage in the air.

Phlox tried to inhale more sea-green dust only for it to be too much for her. This resulted in her passing out mid-air.

"Phlox!" Lupine grabbed a hold of her and clutched her tightly, waiting for the end.

As the ground approached rapidly, the only teen not in absolute terror was Adonis. With an absolute look of pure focus and determination, he called the green gauntlets to his hand. He fired the hooks off at the other teens, catching their armor and carefully avoiding their clothes. Soon he had formed a net of chains for everyone. Then, he drew another weapon from his trench coat.

This one was a very simple grey color. It appeared in the form of a tremendous single-edged broadsword seemingly made up of composite parts. Activating a mechanism on the sword, it promptly split down the middle as well as becoming more streamlined, eventually forming a cannon of sorts. The weapon began to hum with incredible power, before a loud blast akin to a sonic boom – and the explosion Mallow heard when Adonis had jumped on the Nevermore the first time – resulted.

The group of seven flailing teens and one behemoth of one moved in closer to the cliffs. The ground rapidly approached. They took rough estimates in their head of when they would meet the ground. The eventual consensus was that they would die in fifteen seconds. But luckily for them, Adonis appeared to have a plan. As his net of chains brought them all closer to the cliffs, Adonis closed his eyes and concentrated.

Mallow probably would have considered it to be a trick of his eye, but he thought he saw the areas around Adonis's eyes darken and wrinkle, somewhat. However, his belief that it was a trick was instantly dispersed when he opened his eyes. They were of a bright yellow, unlike the sun, far worse. It was a terrible, harsh color burning into him.

Suddenly, the Cliffside reached up and caught them and began to carry them up the slope. Each of them held themselves – and in the case of Lupine, himself and Phlox – as they nearly refused to believe what was happening. They were resting on a bed of black crystals that slowly brought them to the top of the cliff, where Ozpin and Glynda were waiting patiently.

Mallow couldn't help but smirk slightly at Glynda's disbelieving face and Ozpin's continued lack of expression. Until he looked down at himself and he blanched. His clothes were utterly ruined; torn apart by his fall, the brush, and his exposure to the Nevermore's rough feathers. Blood, dirt, and a few tears were mixed with the sweat of his own body creating an ugly vision for both the eyes and the nose. And yet, he couldn't care less. He had made it he could join Beacon.

Then, he remembered the whole point of initiation he reached into his pockets and frantically tried to find the coin. Meanwhile, all the other pairs handed their green, orange, and brown coins to Ozpin, much to Mallow's fear. But before Ozpin could ask for the coin himself, a roar of fury – completely unlike the Nevermore – pierced the air.

Everyone on the cliff, turned towards the Emerald Forest to see the sun rising from below the horizon. It was a glorious orange and yellow, triumphantly staving away the grip of night. With the added natural light, they could all see the Grimm struggling as something continued to fight it.

"Take this, you avian asshole!" Maverick clamored around the Nevermore's body putting some well-placed shots into a few damaged areas of the Grimm's body. He held tightly to its feathers while using the thrusters in his boots to stabilize himself. 'This things going to die,' Maverick thought bitterly, 'for ruining my escape. Now, because this thing that loser, Mallow gets to go to Beacon. I can't stand the sight of that.' Still as bitter, Maverick managed to bring himself up to the Beast's beak and slowly wrenched the two parts open with his impressively strong legs. "Die!" he roared as he unloaded the rest of his clip into the Nevermore's mouth, receiving gouts of blood in return. Ignoring the suffering monster's cries, Maverick reached into a few small pouches on his person and withdrew ten dormant charges, five in each hand. With a sick smirk, he dropped all of them into the wounded maw of the bird. "Say goodbye," he whispered quietly as he loaded his last two clips into his handguns. He set each of his weapons to their maximum firing potential and pulled the trigger, unleashing two powerful explosive shots that required the entire clip, as he jumped out of the Nevermore's beak.

Everyone on the cliff looked away as a glorious explosion rocked the Emerald Forest as bits of black rained from the sky.

Maverick began to fly towards the cliff, desperate to prove himself. However, in his rush, he did not look back at the explosion and a lone, separated wing crashed down unto his left leg, breaking it and causing his thruster to malfunction. "Aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!" Maverick instantly lost sight of the Cliffside and instead saw only the tree line as he plummeted into it.

Glynda sighed silently in relief as she witnessed the young man crash into a tree, knocking himself out, as a white coin slipped out of his pocket and into the brush below.

Ignoring the plight of the young man, Ozpin turned towards Mallow and stared at him intently. "Do you have the relic?"

The young man began to tremble, searching himself again and again and only finding nothing. "I'm sorry sir, I don't…"

"Here it is," interjected the low voice of Adonis, who held out the red coin and placed it in Ozpin's hand – which was largely dwarfed by his.

Mallow felt like fainting from relief, only to actually faint. He fell to the ground, only barely being caught by Adonis. As consciousness escaped him, Ozpin began to speak again. The young man was already losing hearing but he was just about able to hear, "…for the next four years, you all will be Team MAPL and Team ATWM…"


Have a nice life!