Volume 8, Episode 4: Blackest Of Nights

"OOMPH!"

I hit the ground hard. Yep, that's gonna be felt tomorrow morning.

"Airbags…Must find a way to fire airbags to soften my landing…"

I view my surroundings. There's a tunnel at the top of a wall.

"Well, I guess the Rozu Shuni and the Beradonna Shaorongu don't know me that well." I state. "Logically speaking, I'd use my hybrid intelligence to calculate my way out."

But as I step forward, the floor in front of me suddenly gives way! I backflip out of the way, then look down to see my avoided fate.

"Well," I gulp. "Nothing good can come from this." That hole must be miles and miles deep. I slump down, relying on my memory to give me the key out of here.

A Few Days Earlier

"WOO HOO!" Yao yells. "I love the wall climb! Last one up's a slacker!"

As my blonde brother scales the wall with ease(flying is cheating), Rudolph uses his weapon to climb, while Winifred creates ice holds for him to latch onto. As for me, well, not all cats are built for climbing trees. And since I'm only 1/4th feline….

"Ugh….Uh oh, not good!"

I lose my grip and fall back to square one. By now, the other three are at the top. I get back up and, a little bit of my Faunus Rage escaping, kick the wall.

"STUPID USELESS INCREDIBLY DIFFICULT OBSTACLE COURSE!" I yell, kicking the wall with every word. Overhearing my mini-tantrum, my mom comes over.

"Is it really the course you're frustrated with, Shadow?" My mother, Blake, asks.

"No. I guess not." I sigh. "No matter how hard I train, I find it difficult to keep up with the others."

Mom smiles as she leans down and puts a hand on my shoulder.

"There's this one question that I always liked." She tells me. "If a tree falls into a stream, does the water stop flowing?"

"No, Mom." I answer. "The water moves around the tree and makes a new path."

"You are gifted in the mind, Black." Mom says. "But sometimes you overthink. I told you and the others to get to the top of the wall."

"But…you didn't say anything about climbing it." I figure it out. I take a few steps back, activate Black Sun, then use the force of the cannon's blast to launch myself to the top of the wall.

"Be the water, Shadow."

I activate the stinger blade on my arm cannon, aim, then fire its grappling mechanism. I get a direct hit near the tunnel.

"Here goes everything!"

I take a few steps back, then charge forward, leaping over the gap. When I begin to fall in, I activate the grapple to reel me towards the blade. When close, I leap into the tunnel, continuing forward.

"Hmm, interesting." Beradonna Shaorongu observed, hidden by the shadows around her. "Both the red and the black passed. Perhaps Sister and I underestimated the four. No matter. We will not make the same mistake for the other two."

The kunoichi then dashed into the shadows. The time was drawing ever so nearer.