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Chapter 04: Partners

Astra had continued through the dusty and barren expanse of wasteland that was Hammerfall Canyon with the blistering Menagerie sun beating down upon them for longer than they cared to measure or consider yet had gotten no closer to their goal of finding either Athena-Jade or any of the relics that would make their partnership official.

What the young Deer Faunus had done instead was make their way through the canyon in a largely uniform direction based on where they thought Athena might have landed, eyes and ears straining to pick out any signs of life in their desolate surroundings whilst they wiped away sweat that trickled from their brow that was a product of both the uncomfortable climate and the rising sense of tension that they did their best to ignore. As they pressed determinedly onwards the knots in Astra's stomach seemed to wind and coil ever tighter and a voice in the back of their mind arose, unbidden to give license to countless doubts and potential scenarios; 'What if Athena-Jade had already found a team? What if there was a time limit to the initiation that Professor Adel hadn't mentioned? What if they found themselves wandering through the canyon all day and achieved nothing other than making an idiot of themselves?' with no immediate answers or refutations to offer Astra had elected to simply talk over the voice in the back of their head, vocally proclaiming their control of the situation and that things were going to plan and would fall into place soon enough; carrying themselves with a swaggering bravado that they felt none of.

Eventually however Astra had encountered the Creatures of Grimm once again.

Whether it was the creeping sense of panic and dread that they were attempted to mask with a veneer of machismo that had attracted the monsters or simply the sound of their own voice Astra would likely never know, what was important however was that the first attack had come from another pack of Beowolves, snarling and feral things yet rangy and emaciated with an appearance perhaps closer to that of a coyote than truly lupine which Astra had ploughed through with practised ease. The rush of combat allowed the confidence the Faunus displayed to suddenly become more real as each successful blow and rapidly dispatched monster reminded them of exactly how much training they had undertaken and just how hard they had worked to make it even this far; the Beowolves were savage beasts bent on destruction but they were entirely without thought or strategy, the absence of an Alpha to lead them leaving the Grimm relying on simple instinct which quickly saw them outfought and outmatched until the small pack of less than a dozen was destroyed entirely.

What had followed had been both unexpected and yet somehow the most predictable thing in the world, the sound of the battle with the Beowolves, a cacophony of gunfire and yells as blows impacted had drawn more Creatures of Grimm to Astra's location and the sky suddenly darkened as it was filled with the sound of beating wings and the Deer Faunus hastily leapt aside as the first of a small flock of Grimm hurtled towards them like a falling star.

Grimm whose appearance bordered on ludicrous and was clearly a twisted joke on the part of whatever foul intelligence had spawned them.

Each of the small flock, or perhaps herd, six members in total was roughly the size of a respectably large pickup truck with a stout and sturdy form that was largely bovine in appearance, tapering down from massive and powerful shoulders to smaller hindlimbs like a blunt wedge and with vast plates of bone coloured amour layered over its' rippled, leathery black flesh and jagged spikes jutting from those plates at random points with a uniformly swept forward direction to give it an even more fearsome appearance. The heads of the Grimm were skeletal and sloped with fierce red eyes, each of them partially hidden beneath a tangled and matted mane of shaggy and wiry hair with an appearance not unlike thorns or brambles that reached from the monsters' shoulders over their necks and skulls whilst from this bush, with may have served to act as a kind of buffer to absorb the impact of their own charges sprouted a pair of enormous curved horns.

What Astra noticed however as the first Grimm sailed passed them was its' limbs of which their were seven, a whip like yet atrophied and useless tail, four powerful legs ending in broad cloven hooves and finally a pair of massive wings covered in ebony feathers sprouting from each of their backs.

"Are you kidding me?" Astra demanded to thin air "Flying buffalo…they're buffalo with wings!" any previous concerns were pushed to the side for a brief moment by simple affronted incredulity at the situation, allowing the Faunus to act with hesitation and raise their arms to aim and fire the Buckshot Ares at the Winged Buffalo as it came skidding to a halt, hooves tearing shallow trenches into the earth as it did so. The spinning barrels of Astra's weapons whirred into life and unleashed a thunderous barrage which ripped into the flank of the beast as it attempted to turn and charge again, leaving it riddled with holes and fading away into nothingness; proving that as fierce and intimidating as this herd of horrors might appear they were no more dangerous than any other common variety of Grimm.

Only for the remaining five Grimm to come plummeting downwards, rushing towards Astra with lethal force and intent.

"Oh come on!" the Faunus yelled in frustration as they flung their arms in front of their face and activated the Hard-light shield emitters housed within their weapons to create a single, curved plane of solidified light made of pale rose coloured hexagonal panels which the horns of the first Grimm collided against and sent Astra skidding backwards in a cloud of Dust with their nerves jolted and tremors running through their arms at the impact.

There was brief pause, a single beat in the combat where the lead Grimm pawed at the ground with its' hoof and tucked its' wings along its' flanks whilst the four monsters behind it flapped and hovered, seemingly waiting to see what would happen next; then the Grimm lowered its' head and charged and Astra was forced to make a split-second decision of either hoping that their shields could sustain a constant barrage or if they would drop the shields and respond with a counter attack. The decision was made easier by a voice calling out from above, being punctuated by the sound of some pneumatic sounding mechanism being fired.

"GRAB THAT ONE, I'VE GOT THE REST!" acting without thought and with sudden conviction Astra lowered their shields and readied Buckshot Ares for an all out assault. The two combatants surged towards one another, the Grimm's wings unfurling and allowing to reach even greater speeds until at the last possible moment Astra dove to the side and deployed the blades of their forearm mounted weapons and tore a deep, ragged gash in the flank of the monster as they came skidding to a halt in a crouch; a deep rumbling sound of pain and rage escaped the Grimm as it wheeled around and prepared to stampede again, its' wings spreading wide as it rose on its' hindlimbs which the Deer Faunus took full advantage of by aiming and firing their twin mini-guns once again and ripping into their opponents' exposed underside. As the Winged Buffalo faded away Astra quickly turned around to see the interloper who had come to their aid facing off against the remaining four Grimm and was taken aback upon realising their rescuers' identity.

It was the Racoon Faunus from the previous day.

Regalia Russet, though Astra had not been introduced to her and did not know her name, carried a weapon that she had dubbed 'Apex Scavenger' which in its' close combat configuration resembled some unsightly combination of a pickaxe and a jack-hammer with the proportions of a quarterstaff, a dull, dirty and metallic shaft leading to a flat and broad head at the bottom and a bulky deep purple casing the same shade as Regalia's own eyes at the head from which a pair of sharp picks protruded whilst a heavy black cable ran down the length of the weapon. Apex Scavenger was currently in its' ranged form however, that of a sizeable pistol gripped shotgun wherein the blades of the pick axe folded flat along the sides of the barrel formed from purple casing which had fanned out and widened to allow the shaft of the weapon to collapse within it whilst a large reel had deployed below, house the black cable connected to the flat bladed base of the weapon which now formed an under-slung harpoon gun of sorts.

It was this harpoon that had been been fired with a pneumatic hiss and Astra was left watching in stunned silence as they saw the results.

"THIS IS AWESOME!" the Racoon Faunus cackled with unbridled glee as they flung into the air in a high and wide arc as the Winged Buffalo she had speared in the back, her harpoon being buried in its' mane continued to thrash until finally, at the apex of her arc Regalia aimed and fired her shotgun and the Grimm's skull was shattered with a single booming report.

As the body of her first opponent faded away the harpoon segment of her weapon slackened and Regalia quickly retracted it as she shifted Apex Scavenger into its' melee form even as she fell to the ground. She landed in a crouch with a monster on either side of her yet despite this her face was split by a wide and confident smile and her eyes shone with sheer delight though this was masked by the goggles she wore. The pair of Grimm lunged and Regalia threw herself at them with reckless abandon, taking her weapon in her right hand and swinging at the skull of the first bovine monster and smashing it aside whilst chipping away fragments of its' armoured carapace before rounding on the second Grimm and driving the lengthened jack-hammer tip of the thing through its' eye socket and leaving Apex Scavenger stuck in place for the few seconds it took the thing to fade away whilst in that time the tall and muscular young woman had returned her focus to the first of the pair as it attempted to charge at her; catching the Grimm by the horns and with a grunt of painful exertion lifting it off of the ground to perform a move more befitting a staged wrestling match which ended with her rolling onto the toppled beast and retrieving her weapon then driving it through the body of Grimm.

Leaving only a single of the original six Winged Buffalo remaining, which Regalia Russet realised as its' shadow fell over her.

"Aww nuts" she sighed, shifting her weapon into its' shogun form and aiming at the solid mass of of muscle and incarnate rage that came diving towards her with a low, reverberating bellow; the sound not quite enough to drown out the sound of footsteps coming rushing towards her from behind.

Astra had seen enough and rejoined the fray.

"HARPOON IT!" the words rang out in the air and though Regalia seemed to take a moment to process the yelled instruction she complied a fraction of a second before Astra came leaping over her shoulders. The harpoon struck the Buffalo Grimm in the shoulder and dragged the beast out of its' intended collision course just as the Deer Faunus carried the somersault into a perfectly executed axe kick to the monsters' skull before bringing the blades of Buckshot Ares down in a pair of precise slashes which lopped its' head away.

And then there was silence, at least for the moment it took for Regalia to catch sight of the weapons that Astra had used and rush over, flitting about the Deer Faunus and examining them from every angle whilst removing her goggles to reveal comically wide eyes

"Woah….Hard-light emitters, with no external power pack on something this size but how did you compensate for…..And the ammo feeds for these babies must be….wait but how did you compensate and offset, no wait what about-"

"Hi!" Astra interjected, a little more loudly than was necessary and jolting the Racoon Faunus into silence as they brushed dust and debris away from their Mohawk which had managed to remain undisturbed thus far "I'm Astra, Astra Mars"

"Oh right sorry, got kinda caught up on the whole 'make an entrance' thing I forgot that we haven't actually been introduced, right hi I'm Regalia, Regalia Russet" her smile became even wider, to the point that it threatened to fall off her face "And it looks like I'm you're new partner"

"Crap" the word was out of Astra before they could stop themselves and as they saw Regalia visibly sag to the point of almost collapsing in on herself the Deer Faunus mentally kicked themselves and quickly tried to recover the situation as best as possible.

"I didn't mean, I just…."Astra trailed off and forced themselves to stop gesticulating so that they could handle the situation with some semblance of tact "I was actually looking for someone else to partner up with but it's cool, there's four people to a team right; we can just find her now and then the relics after, we can make it work"

"Or we can find two sets of relics and give the other set to the person you're looking for?" Regalia noted thoughtfully, Astra paused for a moment considering her answer as they tried to place their new partners' accent but failed

"Finding two sets of relics though, think we've got a chance of that?"

"There's actually one nearby, I used my Semblance to find it and you….well a partner anyway, but I'm sure you're great"

"You've got a Semblance that lets you find relics?" Astra demanded in utter disbelief

"It points me where I need to go, shows me what I'm looking for even if I don't always get it" Regalia answered, positively brimming with excitement to the point of bouncing on the spot as she added "That's how I landed without Clunker….y'know, my bike"

"That's, well it's pretty fucking cool" Astra admitted "Lead the way and I'll cover you, let's go find some relics" with that the pair set off through the canyon once again and Astra took a few moments to silently regard his new partner and consider the situation; if they were being brutally honest they would rather have been paired with Athena-Jade Slate but the fact remained that Regalia was certainly capable judging by both her weapon and absurd physique which included abs that may have rivalled those of Yang Xiao Long and she seemed nice enough, chatty and bubbly.

Most importantly however her Semblance seemed to be just the lucky break Astra had needed, so things were looking up.

Wolfram Ironside had continued to tear through the Creatures of Grimm, one small pack or swarm at a time in a maelstrom of unfettered fury until finally he had happened upon what could only have been the prize he sought.

In a particularly empty stretch of the canyons' base, with little more than a small scattering of boulders to be seen and a haze of gritty, irritable dust filling the air there had been a shallow crater blasted into the ground and in its' centre there stood a heavy and heavily armoured container of some kind; standing six feet tall and with even more of its' form buried in the ground with cracks and fissures issuing outwards from the point where it had pierced the blasted earth with the force of its' impact. The container sported the logo of Breaktide Academy across its' front, that of a shield with a pair of blades crossed behind it which resembled those used by the late Fox Alistair, the containers' exterior was heavily scuffed and dented and the rocket propulsion system it bore sat idle and lifeless though there was still a series of blinking lights that had initially caught Wolfram's eye through the Dust to indicate that the thing was functional and none of its' damage seemed to prevent it from opening.

Yet before the young man could investigate what he had found the Grimm had found him.

Another small pack of Beowolves, this loose group of snarling horrors only having four members of which three had been cut down with laughable ease and relentless ferocity; the fourth however proved itself to be something far more threatening than its' pack-mates and as the fight wore on Wolfram quickly realised that the reason that the previous groups of Beowolves had been small and leaderless was that they were in fact members of the same, far larger than average pack, a pack whose Alpha had at least enough animal cunning to send monsters all across Hammerfall Canyon to investigate or attack each of the incoming Hunters rather than focusing all of its' might in one place.

It was this Alpha Beowolf that Wolfram currently fought

"COME GET SOME!" he roared as he jammed his axe into his shield and transformed Berserker into its' enormous hand-cannon form before opening fire at the Alpha as it charged towards him. The Grimm was larger than those that it had accompanied, large enough to tower over Wolfram when stood upright and with more prominently jutting spikes growing from its' bony armour and a more determined glint in its' hellish red eyes. The deafening sound of the weapons' report filled the air and Wolfram was forced to grit his teeth and bite back a hiss of pain as each blast not only pushed him backwards a little but sent pulses of pain through his bandaged left arm as he struggled to control the recoil of the destructive force he harnessed until eventually his Aura began to visibly ripple into view around his left wrist in a deep blue-grey colour yet despite it all the Alpha Beowolf remained unharmed as it weaved and bounded between each explosive blast and continued to close the distance until finally it had drawn near enough that Wolfram realised that he would not have chance to ready his axe and shield so instead the young warrior simply threw his shield aside and lunged at the beast with a wordless roar.

The ground shook as the two of them met.

Wolfram wasted no words, though this time a pained snarl escaped his lips as his Aura flickered for the briefest moment and his entire left arm burned and throbbed with a dull, endless ache upon blocking the swiping claws of the Alpha. Ferocious as the thing was it was unable to move the young man though this proved to be little impediment as the thing loomed overhead and let out a low bestial snarl before putting its' height to use and leaning down to seize Wolfram's head in its' jaws.

And then help arrived in an entirely unexpected manner.

"HEADS UP!" the words, delivering by an urgent voice with a notable country drawl to it were quickly followed by the sound of a weapon firing and a heavy metallic clanking on the ground at Wolfram's feet, giving the young man incentive to risk a quick glance downwards only for his stormy grey eyes to widen at the sight of a grenade.

Seizing the initiative he quickly leapt upwards and drove his skull into the tip of the Alpha's snout, stunning the Grimm for the split second it took him to reach down and take the grenade then stuff it into the monsters' mouth; from there he kicked the Alpha Beowolf in the chest with all of his considerable might and sent it sailing backwards to land in a crumpled heap on the dusty ground. A moment later the monster was on its' feet again and with a sickening, retching sound it vomited the grenade up into its' own paws and regarded it with mild confusion.

At which point the grenade exploded and ripped the things' head from its' body.

"And I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll blow you up with a fucking grenade" Wolfram laughed, albeit a little shakily as the adrenaline high of the fight continued to leave him on edge until, after several deep breaths her turned to face the newcomer.

"Thanks….I had it, but thanks"

"Of course you did honey" the rural drawl answered with dripping sarcasm and faint amusement "I'm Ursinia Red"

"Wolfram Ironside and it looks like we're partners now" the young man answered as he took in the sight of his new team-mate. Ursinia Red was a scorpion Faunus who stood at a more than respectable six and a half feet tall which was made even more imposing by the chitinous and stinger-tipped tail that arced up and over her head to make her seem taller still; her skin was a deep and rich dark brown which shone in the sun whilst her tail was a darker shade, almost black yet with a distinct reddish-brown hue to it's glossy exterior that caught the light with every movement and her physique was every bit as powerful as her country accent might suggest, with broad shoulders and large, strong limbs that were offset by a full, well-fed figure with prominent curves. Her face was warm and open with rounded features, full cheeks and eyes of light brown shade that seemed to shimmer in the light whilst her hair was a deep and striking shade of scarlet and had been tied into a pair of thick braided pigtails which fell over her shoulders, the rest of her head being covered by a light tan coloured hat, with a wide brim and a bright red flower stitched into it.

The rest of Ursinia's outfit consisted of a short sleeved red chequered shirt worn with a few buttons unfastened and with a tan coloured vest thrown over it, the vest in question featuring a plethora of pockets on its' front, one of which lay over her left breast and displayed her emblem which pictured a flower with a segmented and arching stem that resembled a scorpions' tail whilst to the rear the vest sported a harness to support the massive sheathe laid diagonally across the Faunus's back and whilst her left hand was bare, with its' callouses and thin scars plain to see her right hand and forearm were covered by a creamy white fingerless glove fastened around the wrist by a series of brown leather straps with golden buckles. From her prominent hips hung a series of light tan cape-like skirts of various lengths arranged in trios that hung over each leg ending at roughly her calves, each of them being interspersed with a layer of some light and frilly frilly material in bright red, the entire assembly being held up by a thick and sturdy belt whilst beneath the capes was a pair figure-hugging creamy white shorts which reached to just above the young woman's knees and on her feet she wore a pair well-worn but equally well cared for tan brown cowboy boots which reached to a little below her knees and featured spurs and detailing in burnished gold.

Overall Ursinia Red was an imposing, yet somehow not exactly intimidating sight; a statement that seemed largely at odds with the weapon she carried easily in one had, namely a pistol-gripped grenade launcher with a large circular rotating ammo drum sitting atop it and a hefty cylindrical barrel made of some golden metal with bright red casing placed around it whilst adorning the sides of the weapon were two collapsed sections of a single golden blade, each section curving along the edge of the barrel to give the appearance of a stylised pincer until the Scorpion Faunus shifted the weapon into its' alternate form with a whirring and clanking of mechanical components; the entire assembly rotated upwards, the cylindrical chamber rested in place of a cross-guard and the blade unfurled dramatically before reforming to produce a broadsword with a golden blade which was, at its' widest point larger than Wolfram's torso though Ursinia handled it with ease and casually sheathed it at her back.

"So I'm guessing you weren't just fighting that Grimm for the sake of your own amusement?" Ursinia asked lightly, a bright smile showing slightly gap-teeth

"Guessing those relics we're looking for are in that rocket locker over there" Wolfram gestured towards the metallic mass that had drawn him into the shallow crater in the first place before setting off towards it, retrieving his weapon as he went.

"Rocket locker?" Ursinia asked with a shake of the head "You city-folk really will just waste good Dust on anything won't ya"

"Don't blame me I'm not from the city, hell I didn't even think anywhere still made these things" Wolfram chuckled good naturedly "The one's I've seen are old cast-offs from the other academies and even older ones from airships….me and a couple buddies used to try and get the rockets working so we could race 'em out in the wastes and-SON OF A BITCH" the armoured and fierce looking teen had interrupted his own fond reminiscing of testosterone fuelled idiocy with a howl of pain that he was no longer able to ignore as his attempt to rip open the door of the rocket locker tormented his already aching left arm.

"You okay there partner?" Ursinia asked worriedly, striding over with open concern on her features

"I'm fine!" Wolfram snapped before taking a moment to get his temper under control "Sorry….I'm fine, just that my weapon kicks a lot and I keep straining this arm using it"

"You think maybe you should fix the weapon then….Something that eats away at your own Aura like that can't be a good idea?" the Scorpion Faunus noted

"Nothing wrong with the weapon, what I need to do is toughen up and plough through it" Wolfram saw the look of open worry that his new partner treated him to and responded with a stern glare that she refused to back down in the face of

"Can already see you're gonna be stubborn as a mule, so while I'm not saying you're making a good choice….I might have a Semblance that can help" with that explanation she reached out and gingerly touched Wolfram's bandaged left forearm, a warm and sunny reddish glow extending from her palms to the limb which Wolfram noted felt warm and then cold until it was numbed to the point of feeling nothing at all.

"What did-"

"Took the edge off of it….that hasn't fixed it mind, so be careful now. My Semblance stops you from feeling pain and let's you keep on chugging away but I'm not a doctor" she nodded towards the rocket locker with a sudden look of determination and excitement "Now let's crack that thing open and see what we're dealing with"

"Right" Wolfram growled out, thankful for the help but mildly irritated at not being the one to give orders though he made up that perceived shortcoming by reaching out with his good hand and being the one to tear the rocket locker open and reveal what laid within.

"Are you kidding me?" Ursinia let out a dry laugh as she leaned into the open container, using the tip of her stinger to gently tilt her hat back on her head as she did so "All of that and the relics are a set of chess-pieces"

"Lemme get a better look" Wolfram said simply reaching into the rocket locker and withdrawing a digital tablet and examining it whilst considering the situation "Okay so this is obviously our way out of here, directions to wherever we get pulled out from are gonna be on here….but Professor Adel said matching relics form a team….we got the Black Knights, so we should find whoever got the white ones on the way out. Shame we didn't get King though" Ursinia nodded in understanding and agreement, which Wolfram took as a sign to simply act and as such set of, though a moment later his new partner spoke up with a bemused note

"You've never played chess before have ya?"

Athena-Jade Slate was yet to learn the name of her mysterious and taciturn new partner, something that the young Bear Faunus was beginning to consider a personal failure as a future team leader.

Upon coming to Athena's aid the Grasshopper Faunus had silently pressed onwards, elongated and insectoid cybernetic limbs giving her a graceful and bounding gait with long purposeful strides which left her ragged cape, worn around her neck like a scarf flowing dramatically behind her and Athena herself; at the unimpressive height of five feet tall and with legs that whilst sturdy and muscular were not exactly long struggling to keep pace. The two of them had continued through Hammerfall Canyon however, or perhaps more accurately the Grasshopper Faunus whose face remained partially obscured by the faded black fabric pulled over her nose and mouth continued on with a sense of purpose and determined direction, her mismatched eyes and what little of her features could be seen being pulled into a steadily more annoyed frown as Athena-Jade followed her, chatting away animatedly in an effort to break the ice in a way which fighting the Creatures of Grimm together had evidently failed to.

"Hey um….Hops, can I call you hops? You still haven't told me your name, do you know where we're going? I mean you jumped down into that fight back there so I'm guessing that you were using a higher vantage point before that, good idea by the way I should've thought of that….Thanks again for the assist that trick with the Dust combos was awesome, have you got one like that for every mix of Dust or?….Hey are you okay over there? This heat is killing me and you're wearing a scarf over your face, I don't have any more water on me but I've got some Ice Dust if you want to keep cool?" Athena-Jade received nothing but silence in response and her sapphire blue eyes narrowed in annoyance as her partners' demeanour began to cross the line between an air of untouchable coolness and simply being difficult and needlessly rude; the paler and shorter of the two women fully intended to make that opinion known but found herself faltering as she glanced again at the garment covering her partners' mouth

"Oh my Oum" Athena gasped, hands flying to her face "I didn't think, can you talk? If you can't then I've got a Scroll and you can type an answer out, I'm so sorry" as she spoke she rested her hammer over her shoulders and supported it with one hand whilst rummaging through the requisite pocket for Scroll until the Grasshopper Faunus turned towards her and treated Athena to baleful glare which the stout young woman tolerated only because it was the first sign that her knew partner might actually interact with her willingly.

At which point the moment was promptly shattered by a piercing shriek from above.

"Oh what now?" Athena demanded, turning her eyes skywards in the direction of the jarring sound just as a large shadow fell over the two of them; revealing their attacker to be a single avian Grimm though this monstrosity being alone was offset by the fact that it was several times larger than the Scree Athena had encountered whilst entering the canyon. Readying Mould Breaker Athena heard her partner following suit yet before either of them could attack the Giant Scree flapped its' wings and unleashed a flurry of pointed and serrated quills which came hurtling downwards

"TAKE COVER!" Athena called out, providing cover in the barren and open ground by manifesting a glyph above and in front of her fellow Faunus and angled to intercept the incoming salvo, only for the gesture to be rendered pointless as the taller woman aimed her long-barrelled pistol and fired, shattering the glyph with the first round and simply rolling aside with ease and leaving Athena, who had foregone protecting herself sprawled in the dust with her heart hammering against her ribs as she leapt to the ground to avoid the attack, with a quill impacting and burying itself in the ground only inches in front of her face.

Scrabbling to her feet the Bear Faunus let out a low growl as she hefted Mould-Breaker and shifted the weapon into its' laser cannon form, the pale green glow of synthetic Dust streaming from the vents in its' power supply as she aimed the barrel upwards, waiting until the avian Grimm let out another ear-splitting shriek and dove towards her to squeeze the trigger and send a bolt of crackling light directly at her foe.

Only to be forced to jerk her weapon forcefully to the side.

"Damn it! WHAT'RE YOU DOING?" Athena demanded, voice almost lost beneath the din that the Giant Scree let out as her weapons' blast ripped into the wing and flank of the Grimm with a glancing and decidedly non-fatal hit; her partner had leapt directly into the path of the attack meant for the Grimm, powerful mechanical legs sending her high into the air as she shifted her weapon its' cane or blunted and cylindrical sword of a combat form, its' synthetic and digitised voice providing an answer.

'Gravity! Lightning!' once again each word was delivered with a slightly different tone and inflection and Athena-Jade realised that each Dust variant that her partner used had a specific voice within her weapon tied to it; the Grasshopper Faunus struck the Grimm directly between the eyes and the Gravity Dust, with no projectile to fire turned the strike into a concussive blast which sent a shock-wave through the body of the monster whilst the Lightning Dust she had employed in tandem with it left arcs of lightning trailing between its' feathers until they burned and faded away as the monster perished.

"Okay fine that was cool" Athena-Jade admitted to herself in a muttered grumble before collapsing her weapon and holstering it a she strode over to where her partner had landed; some form of shock-absorbers hidden within her cybernetic legs allowing her to make weathering the fall seem entirely effortless.

"Sorry about that, I think we both just went for it at the same time" Athena chuckled rubbing the freshly shaven side of her head with one hand whilst extending the other "Are you okay though?" the Grasshopper Faunus offered no answer and simply turned to continue on towards whatever destination she was leading Athena towards, halting only when the Bear Faunus placed a clawed hand firmly on the taller girls' shoulder to keep her in place.

She had tolerated enough nonsense for one day

"Okay let's just clear something up here, 'cos I think there's been a misunderstanding" she began, keeping her voice even and pleasant even as an irate tone threatened to breach the surface with every word she uttered "We're partners. You heard Coco Adel, this isn't optional so unless you wanna call it quits we're stuck with each other and you knew that Hunters work in teams before you came here so do me a favour and loose the whole 'I'm a rogue in Basements and Beasties' attitude okay?" Athena paused, removing her hand and sighing "Look I'm sorry, I didn't mean to get snappy but we don't have relics, I don't know where the person I was trying to find is and I don't even know my partners' name" the Grasshopper Faunus turned slowly and faced her, seemingly pausing to consider for a moment before lowering the part of her cape that covered her mouth, finally speaking and revealing her voice to a soft and gentle one that seemed to naturally fall barely above a whisper and had an unmistakable cultured accent to it masking a faint rasp.

"My name is Zirconia Shadowmoon and I know where a set of relics are, I saw them when I was deployed and have been trying to make my way back to them" with that she turned and continued onwards, leaving Athena-Jade to follow again which the Bear Faunus did without hesitation.

Despite what she had said she did after all still think that her new partner was cool.

Despite being taken out into the always perilous wastelands between Menagerie's settlements and catapulted into a Grimm-filled canyon from the height of a floating platform in the sky, all before having chance to even begin repairing her jetbike Regalia Russet found that she was having quite a good day.

The Racoon Faunus had been beset by airborne insectoid Grimm from even before she had landed yet had managed to make this work in her favour by first using the harpoon section of Apex Scavenger to skewer one of the buzzing horrors that had assaulted her and use her own weight as a rudimentary steering system as she dragged the Grimm down to the ground before blasting and fighting her way through the swarm of nightmares made flesh.

From there her Semblance had made things relatively simple.

Regalia's Semblance was one that she had dubbed 'Look-See' and, as she had recently explained to her new partner while the two of them traversed Hammerfall Canyon worked by showing her what she needed, though not always exactly what she wanted and whilst her Semblance provided answers it did not give her any additional insight, information or understanding of them; for instance once she was free from the attacks of buzzing and hovering monsters she had used her Semblance and been rewarded with a faintly glowing light which oscillated between purple and gold in the distance and a difficult to describe sensation, like a tugging at the back of her mind urging her to move towards that light. Scaling the rocky wall that was the edge of the canyon and using a relatively flat outcropping as a vantage point she had adjusted the various dials and toggles of the heavy duty goggles she wore to filter through the haze and dust in the air and magnify the image beyond even what Faunus eyesight could naturally see until she had a better idea of where exactly she was heading but still no idea what she would find when she arrived there.

It was this use of her Semblance that had led her to Astra Mars.

Regalia was frankly delighted with her new partner and how the two of them had met. Growing up outside of the Kingdoms and constantly on the move with her family and the community that they were part of had left Regalia with very few lasting or close friends her own age and none at all who were not raised within that same community, as such much of her understanding of the workings and intricacies of normal teenage life was something she had acquired by classic movies, many of which were older than herself and the previous days' altercation she had been worried that perhaps a memorable entrance to make a good first impression might not be the sure fire way to make friends that she had been led to believe.

Astra however seemed to share the Racoon Faunus's flair for the dramatic, judging by their own leather jacket, a far newer and more stylish thing than Regalia's and their striking dark make-up and vibrantly dyed Mohawk, to say nothing of their weapons which Regalia had continued to cast awestruck glances at, not wanting to be overly forward but still eager to examine more closely as they were marvels of technology relative to much of what she had seen before. The Deer Faunus seemed nice enough, projecting an air of confidence in much the same way that Regalia was trying to and chatting casually with her whilst providing cover with their weapons even if it did seem that they were eager to be elsewhere; though considering their whereabouts Regalia supposed that was hardly unreasonable.

The plan that they had agreed upon was going well thus far, the two of them had encountered a first set of relics with relative ease and finding the digital tablet and relics, a pair of white rook chess pieces within with little in the way of interference and what few Grimm they did encounter being brought low by their combined efforts. From there two of them had continued onwards in search of the corresponding pair of black rooks which Astra had surmised would allow them to decide who they would a form a four person team with and remove randomness from the equation, with a target in mind Regalia had activated Look-See again and the light that only she could see and familiar tug had directed her towards the second pair of relics.

Which had brought the two of them to their current location

"Of course they'd be sniffing the damn thing" Astra muttered as they peeked around the boulder the two of them were taking cover behind and watched as a pair of Beowolves paced around the rocket locker, occasionally snarling and snapping at one another with malicious intent.

"It's two Beowolves, you could just blast 'em right?" Regalia noted pointedly

"Even if it doesn't draw more there's a chance of hitting the locker and we don't know if there's any Dust left in it….I don't wanna risk blowing the relics up"

"Okay that's a good point" Regalia admitted, leaning against the boulder and taking care to keep her voice down as a sigh escaped her whilst Astra' brow furrowed as the Deer Faunus quickly though of a solution

"You go right I'll go left, get their attention and I'll cover you" they quietly deployed Buckshot Ares and turned to Regalia "Ready?"

"Heh, sure" Regalia brushed her nose in a habitual tic before raising her goggles onto her forehead and readying Apex Scavenger in its' shotgun mode and then, with nothing left to be said the two of them were in motion. Regalia sprinted to the right from behind the boulder they had taken cover behind and let out a shrill whistle to draw the attention of the pair of Grimm which predictably turned and came charging towards her with their jaws snapping hungrily at which point Astra slunk around the left side of the boulder and used their position to sneak behind the Grimm as they passed. As a shadow feel over them the monsters paused and shared brief looks of confusion before Astra, who had leapt high into the air came crashing down onto one of them and lashed out with both arm mounted blades to cleave the things' skull from its' body; quickly following up with a defensive stance with both shields covering their face as the remaining Beowolf pounced.

"I've got it!" Regalia called out, firing the harpoon slung under her shotgun and burying its' tip in the flank of the beast before retracting it and pulling the Beowolf both off balance and towards her, reacting with lightning speed the Racoon Faunus wrapped her left arm around the things' neck as it neared her and pulled it over her shoulders in something close to a fireman's carry before leaping into the air and slamming the Grimm face first into the ground, from there she shifted Apex Scavenger into its' close combat mode and swung the pickaxe down into her opponents' chest to end the battle.

"And they say wrestling's fake" Astra laughed before shaking their head in disbelief as they swagged over to the rocket locker and ripped its' door open

"Did we find 'em?" Regalia asked, striped and bushy tail standing upright behind her as she rubbed her hands together hopefully

"Yeah we did, good work Regalia we've got all four of these pieces so we can give them to the people we want on our team….I think we should leave the other tablet here though, someone might need it and we don't need two" Astra answered pocketing the pieces before turning towards her "Okay, where do we need to be now?"

"Uh, gimme a sec" Regalia thought, choosing the question that she would hold in her mind carefully as she was certain that if she did not that her Semblance would simply lead the pair to the extraction point whilst at the same time knowing all too well that her Semblance did not deal in overly complex thoughts and ideas and responded better to simple needs that could be summed up in a few words; eventually she settled on 'Friends?' and felt the familiar tug at the back of her mind as a purple and golden light shimmered into existence at the edge of her vision like some kind of objective marker, though exactly what it would lead her to remained unknown

"Ooh" she chirped happily as she squinted for a moment before lowering her goggles again "I can't see exactly where they are and they're on the move but they're actually pretty close"

"Cool" Astra beamed "Let's go"

Despite giving her new partner her name Zirconia Shadowmoon had remained largely silent as the two had continued towards the relic that the Grasshopper Faunus claimed to have seen catching the sunlight upon her deployment, responding to Athena-Jade's attempts to strike up conversation with brief answers of no more than a handful of words at a time in the same soft and cultured voice with a faint rasp to it that almost certainly came from a lack of use until finally the Bear Faunus was forced to accept that her partner was likely just not very sociable.

Which she supposed was fine, Athena would just have to be the voice of her team as well as its' fearless and reliable leader.

"There" Zirconia murmured, voice muffled somewhat by the fact that her cape like garment was covering her nose and mouth like a scarf once again though her words were still clearly discernable and Athena-Jade quickly followed her gaze, eyes locking on a metallic gleam as the high morning sun which had continued to blaze down on the canyon was reflected on something bulky and larger than the Bear Faunus herself buried close to the rocky wall of the canyons' steep face.

"Okay come-" Athena found herself letting out an annoyed growl as Zirconia sprung forwards before she could complete the sentence though the smaller of the two young women still reached to the back of her waist where the collapsed form of Mould-Breaker rested in order to cover her partner if the need arose.

In short order the pair had crossed the distance between themselves and the hard edge of the canyon with no complications and nothing to be seen but rubble, the occasional weed or cactus and a lone bovine skull completely detached from the rest of the skeleton which left Athena wondering how exactly it had gotten there until the vastly more important matter ahead of her demanded her attention.

The large and cumbersome object that Zirconia had spied twice now was a rocket locker, an object she was familiar with only because her father, Atlas Academies' current combat instructor and her Aunt Winter, the academies' nominal head had both soundly mocked the ridiculous methods of deployment in her presence; this particular locker was heavily damaged with one entire side of it ragged, warped and collapsed where it had been struck and a glance at the rock face above revealed a scar that followed what must have been the lockers' trajectory with rubble piled on the dusty ground where it had been knocked free. Seeing no immediate threats Zirconia stepped forward to investigate only for Athena to halt her and intervene, if the Bear Faunus were asked she would likely use the excuse of wanting to use her Glyphs for protection in case there were any unseen traps however in truth she simply wanted to be the one to claim the relics, feeling that it was in-keeping with the goal of leadership that she had set for herself.

Only to realise upon doing so that the hatch of the rocket locker was already ajar and that there were no relics inside

"No" she stated bluntly, arms falling limply at her side whilst a look of utter dejection crossed her features "No way"

"Someone got here first" Zirconia surmised "I didn't think stopping to investigate your fight with the Beowolves took so long" the comment, delivered in the same even and muted tone was met with an outburst of explosive anger from Athena and the sound of her first colliding against Atlesian steel with enough force to mar its' surface whilst her Aura kept fingers from breaking echoed through the canyon as the Bear Faunus turned to her partner, alabaster features pulled into a deep scowl.

"Don't pass this off on me Hops, if you'd just told me what you were trying to do the first time I asked instead of ignoring me then I could have come up with a plan!"

"And found a short-cut despite the fact we were moving in a straight line?" Zirconia asked, voice delicate but filled with sudden testy sarcasm; giving the first true hints of anything other than aloof and mysterious stoicism.

"Okay, so we're doing this then?" Athena snarled, gesturing widely to their surroundings as her voice rose "Here of all places, sure why not?"

"We're not 'doing' anything" Zirconia answered quietly, taking a single step back as she added "There are other relics Athena….why are you angry?" the fact that the question was part of the longest string of words that Zirconia had yet treated her to gave the shorter and currently more irate Faunus pause though before she could truly consider her own emotions well enough to give any kind of answer a fresh distraction came in the sound of heavy, thudding footfalls and a deep rumbling growl as something large came prowling through the debris that the rocket lockers' crash landing had left in its' wake.

"Grimm are attracted to negative emotions" Zirconia noted, mismatched eyes fixed on Athena-Jade who merely huffed

"We're in a canyon full of Grimm, I'm not taking the blame for this" as she spoke the nightmare made flesh in question stomped into view and revealed itself to a towering hulk of quadrupedal muscle with heavy bone coloured armour littered with spikes; an Ursa, though thankfully not one of the larger and more deadly Ursa Major variants.

Athena-Jade and Zirconia readied their weapons and leapt into action without a word of communication between them.

The Ursa let out a bellowing roar as it reared onto its' hindlimbs and stretched its' claws wide in challenge whilst Athena simply charged forwards undeterred with Mould-Breaker unfurling into its' massive hammer form in her hands, grasping tightly the weapon she activated the booster with its' cylindrical head and prepared to swing with what she hoped would be enough force to shatter the monsters' body even though its' attempts to guard yet before she could launch her attack in earnest she was forced off balance by a sudden weight

"What're you-" Athena trailed off as Zirconia who had used her powerful mechanical limbs to leap into the air landed on the shaft of Mould-Breaker and used it as a springboard to propel herself forwards, sending her partner skidding off balance and the head of her rocket-powered hammer smashing into the ground, which cratered and shook under the force. Gritting her teeth Athena-Jade braced herself and with an exertion of everything from her powerful calves upwards ripped Mould-Breaker from the ground before turning to see that her partner was weaving around the thrashing Ursa as it lunged at her with its' teeth and claws with the two combatants in something of a stalemate as the Grimm could not strike the Faunus whilst Zirconia could not find a suitable opening.

And so Athena decided to make one for her.

Charging into the fray again the shorter and more muscular of the two would be Hunters hefted her giant hammer over one shoulder with one hand and instead thrust her free hand forwards to create a series of glyphs which first blocked the Ursa's rampaging blows for at least a moment and then created a platform from which Zirconia could deliver one of her leaping attacks; only for Zirconia to choose that very moment to change tactics and shift her weapon to its' ranged form and snap off a series of Dust infused round which tore through the glyphs and blasted chunks from the Grimm's armour; seeing this Athena decided that she would attend to the problem herself and created a new series of glyphs as she continued her charge, using these glyphs herself and taking to the air as she leapt from one to the next whilst holding her hammer overhead for a crushing blow

"BEAR ON BEAR VIOLENCE!" her battle-cry coincided with Mould-Breaker arcing downwards and striking the Ursa square in the chest and doing catastrophic damage to its' ribs and torso, yet still the thing persisted and Athena felt its' claws snag on the shaft of her weapon before she was flung down onto the hard and dusty ground at the feet of the Grimm, its' pained and ragged gasping sounding ominously loud as it loomed over her.

'Ice! Synthetic!' Athena-Jade heard the telltale computerised voice of her partners' weapon and quickly scrabbled and rolled aside as quickly as possible, having no idea of what Zirconia was planning until one of her mechanical limbs was planted only inches away from her. Looking up Athena saw her partner strike the Ursa in its' already wounded torso and watched as the freezing effects of Ice Dust spread across its' struggling form until Zirconia span and delivered a second strike with a flourish whilst facing away from the monster, at which point the Bear Faunus saw the distinctive borealis-glow of the Schnee Dust Companies' synthetic Eco-Dust and realised exactly how its' volatile nature was about to be use.

Athena curled into a ball and covered her face and ears as the Ursa was blasted apart, feeling pieces of frozen Grimm matter ricocheting off her body before fading away.

"Will you be careful with that thing" she gave an exasperated plea as she returned to her feet, eyeing the weapon that Zirconia continued to twirl with ease.

"It's called 'Sunriser Cain'" the Grasshopper Faunus noted, clearly regarding her weapon as worthy of proper respect

"Sure" Athena sighed, catching her breath for a moment before stating aloud one truth that the battles the two of them had shared had made abundantly clear "Hops, we really need to work on your communication"

Diabla Fuego was having a decidedly unenjoyable morning thus far, though she supposed things could always be worse; she could have been lumbered by the rich Atlesian girl who had decided to come to Menagerie.

Diabla stood at a slightly above average height of a little more than five and a half feet tall and boasted a muscular, yet not cumbersomely so physique that spoke of toughness and resilience and carried herself with a sense of commanding determination. The young woman's skin was a light, almost golden brown and her face had strong and defined features whilst also being a little on the gaunt and drawn side of slender, lips being pulled almost naturally into a tight scowl whilst her eyes were filled with some silent strength that radiated outwards; a blazing orange in colour and highlighted by a small and thin curving scar that ran along her right cheekbone which had faded enough to clearly be an old injury; her hair was a light chestnut brown which had been cropped and shaved into a short and practical buzz-cut that had been given a personal touch in the form of a fiery orange streak running down the right side just above her ear. Diabla's attire only leant to her intimidating appearance, much of it being surplus Atlesian military gear of an older model, yet a sleeker and more lightweight variant than the standard bulky carapace given to footsoldiers without an unlocked Aura; a tactical vest with a worn and faded white exterior being worn over a simple and pristine white button down shirt with its' sleeves rolled up the elbows and a large, heavy belt filled with pouches holding up a pair of black combat pants, here to the clothing had been given personal touches however in the form of heavy, steel toed boots whose reddish-brown colour was clearly a departure from the military standard and also a pair of bright orange braces worn over the armour, holding more Dust containers and a tie of the same colour worn around her neck which featured a pin displaying Diabla's personal emblem; a horned and fanged skull engulfed in flames.

Her rolled up sleeves were done so to accommodate her weapons which were currently deployed, collapsed they appeared to be a pair of bracers or amour pieces around her forearms with the white and gunmetal of Atlas being complemented by more of Diabla's own vibrant orange. When deployed in the first mode the pair became a pair heavy Gauntlets with steel plates resting in front of her knuckles though the mismatched Dust cylinders and other mechanical components hinted that they were not truly a matching pair, they were currently deployed in their secondary configuration wherein her her right arm boasted a Dust powered flamethrower dubbed 'Peace' and her left arm was fitted with a savage looking blade that vibrated at ultrasonic frequencies that Diabla had named 'Quiet'

Though peace and quiet were things she seemed unlikely to have any time soon considering that her new partner simply would not stop talking.

Diabla's partner was a young man with a distinctive accent that marked him out as hailing from the inner city cesspools of Vaccuo by the name of Laser Greenback. Laser was wiry and weedy thing standing at under five and a half feet tall whose complexion had an almost sickly cast to it despite being lightly tanned seemingly quite recently, though much of his skin was currently hidden beneath his clothing whilst his hair was a vibrant shade of yellow and hung in a spidery, unkept mess that fell about his face and hair and threatened to cover his eyes which were a shade of vibrant yet sickly looking greenish-yellow if they were not already covered by the glasses, or perhaps more accurately visor that he wore.

Much of Laser's narrow, bony face was currently covered by a single panel of some unknown material that was was vivid green in colour and outwardly opaque with appearance vaguely suggesting two arrows pointing in opposite directions which his yellow locks were pushed away from his face by. The rest of the young mans' outfit consisted of more layers than most people would be comfortable wearing in the heat of Menagerie, a bright green tank-top which bore his emblem which resembled some sort of toxic warning symbol with several silver chains from his neck above it which then had a grey hoodie worn over it and hanging over it whilst above that was a black bomber jacket replete with light armour plating in worked into to vital areas, an integrated harness to secure his weapon on its' back and several pockets on the sleeves and more hidden within the garment whilst his hands were hidden by black leather gloves. His jeans were of the kind associated with bikes, black padding set against faded and worn denim with a belt and harness that weaved around the thighs made of black and yellow hazard stripes standing out against them whilst his feet were covered by a pair of well worn black sneakers that had been modified to include armour plating and, Diabla had learned, the climbing spikes and clamps that had aided in the young mans' landing strategy.

Some part of Laser's personality clearly shone through in every aspect of the weapon that he currently wielded; named 'Permadeath' in one form the weapon was a short barrelled sub-machine gun with a bull-pup configuration and whose glossy black cowling was offset by the fact that its' stock was made of a translucent green material that would have appeared more at home on a vintage games console. In its' current form however, the barrel of Permadeath had collapsed and shifted to become a handle whilst its' clear green stock split open and rotated to become a hand-guard and revealed that stored within it was a collapsed, glossy black blade which unfurled to form a slightly oversized katana which Laser was currently using to hack and slash at the Grimm that the unlikely partners grappled with a series of twirling and dramatic attacks that were unfortunately less effective than they were visually impressive.

"Y'know we've got something kinda like these back in Vaccuo, Sulphur Fish….annoying little critters that end up inside every-"

"Will you stop talking and start fighting properly!" Diabla barked as she engulfed a roiling tide of Grimm matter in flames, her voice being low and husky with an accent native to one of the outer settlements which had broken away from Atlas's control.

The pair had retrieved their relics with ease, at which point Diabla had stated bluntly that she intended to make her way to the extraction point, alone if needs be and her remaining team-mates could either introduce themselves on the way or back at the academy, she didn't care which. Laser had been visibly and vocally dismayed by this but had chosen to follow his new partner until the two of them had encountered the first sign of their current troubles; a fire-ant Grimm no larger than a forearm, with hellish red compound eyes set against a jet black form with only the merest hints of bony exoskeleton. Alone the Grimm would have been no problem however it had quickly proven that it had no intention of attacking them alone as hundreds upon hundreds of its' kin had burst up from cracks and fissures in the dusty ground and begun to reveal their true powers, piling and crashing into one another with their bodies becoming indistinct and blurred masses of living darkness in the vague shape of giant claws or lashing tendrils that assaulted the two Hunters with singular purpose and gave a reason to the name that the beasts were known by.

'Infernal Devices'.

"JUST! STAY! DEAD!" Diabla roared as individual Grimm came scuttling and swarming from the construct that she had immolated, which she responded to by driving the blade fitted to her other arm into each of their bodies in turn as it became clear that victory would only come when each and every one of the Grimm was destroyed. Turning to Laser she saw that her partner was continuing to tear through a Grimm construct that resembled a writhing mass of barbed whips only for each severed appendage to break apart into a swarm of its' constituent Grimm before returning to the larger body, though she supposed that the way he used the retractable climbing spikes in his shoes to stomp on the skull of one monster and throw a Hard-light Dust powered blade at the back of another was at least somewhat impressive.

"Y'know what we need is a way to split 'em up and keep 'em split up" he noted almost conversationally despite the current situation "I've got Ice Dust but not enough and I don't wanna waste it if they can just unfreeze each other so-"

"MOVE IDIOT!" Diabla bellowed before simply aiming her flame thrower and launching a searing jet at the mass of thrashing darkness, deciding that her partner could either move quickly or learn the importance of concentration the hard way; fortunately he chose the former

"Holy crap!" he exclaimed as he flung himself into a needlessly dramatic back-flip and rolled away from the flames before pulling himself into a crouch and taking the initiative to shift Permadeath back into its' machine gun mode so that he could pick of the Grimm that had survived being incinerated as they attempted to reform however the Infernal Devices themselves had other plans, a disgustingly wet squelching sound filled the air as each of the separate masses of conglomerated Grimm rushed towards one another and congealed into a single segmented body with far too many limbs and mandibles filled with ever-shifting spikes that stood taller than Laser and Diabla, its' sudden manifestation giving them both a moments' pause as they each struggled to quickly find an answer to the problem it presented.

Only for an answer to come surprisingly in the form of a grenade landing at the feet of the Grimm and promptly exploding

"GET OUT OF THE WAY, I'VE GOT IT!" both teens turned to see a pair of their fellow initiated charging into the fray from behind them, the grenade having been delivered by a tall and powerfully built Scorpion Faunus whose weapon was in the process of transforming into a broadsword as she ran whilst several paces ahead of her and wearing a manic, leering grin as he brandished an axe and shield was the young man who had called out.

Wolfram Ironside.

Wolfram charged between his new allies and extended his left hand, though this time it was not use his shield or combine his weapons into their ranged form; instead as the masses of Grimm that had been blasted apart surged towards one another to form a new, more hideous construct the young warrior activated his Semblance and in a rushing wave that extended from his fingertips and was accompanied by a howling, freezing wind the very air itself became a solid and immovable mass.

Which severed the two halves of the reforming Infernal Device like a guillotine.

"NOW!" Wolfram roared "WHILE IT'S REFORMING!" at his words Diabla and Laser watched for a moment as Ursinia Red charged in after her partner with her sword at the ready and the two of them set about carving through the individual insectoid monsters on one side of the now fading barrier that had been put in place; a moment later Diabla's mind caught up with events around her and a deluge of flames poured from her right gauntlet to purge the Grimm not being attended to by her newly arrived allies and Laser followed suit by gunning down any scuttling horror that escaped the flames until after only a few moments the air was filled with smoke and the four teens were visibly drained after the ordeal yet the Grimm were mercifully entirely destroyed.

"Well….that's something ya don't see everyday; Lego-Grimm" the Scorpion Faunus noted before using her tail to tip her hat in the direction of her new team-mates "Hi I'm Ursinia"

"Nice sword" Laser noted

"Thanks, it's called 'The Adventurer'" Ursinia replied, thankful for the compliment but a little disconcerted by the boy lowering his visor and giving it a look that mad it clear he was pricing up each of its' individual components before his manners, such as they were returned to him "Hi, I'm Laser and this is Diabla….be careful with her she-"

"Wait your Mum named named you Laser?" the armoured young man wielding the axe whose name Laser had not learned yet snorted as he sidled over and stowed his weapons

"Yeah and I've already heard whatever joke you wanna make and I know it's tacky as all hell, but it's my name"

"Whatever man, I'm Wolfram-"

"And if you don't have the other Knight pieces then this conversation is getting us nowhere" Diabla interjected bluntly, taking a moment to collapse Peace and Quiet then reach into one of the pouches on her orange braces and produce to small white chess-pieces, which Wolfram simply answered with a grin.

"Yeah we've got the black ones, figured the white set would be close by so we took a scenic route towards the extraction point so we were more likely to run into each other….heard you dealing with the Grimm and decided to join in" Diabla simply nodded in understanding, not having anything to add to the conversation at that point

"So we've got a four person team and we know where the extraction point is" Ursinia summarised, eyes suddenly bright as her face morphed into a wide toothy smile "Oh my gosh we've almost done it, we're almost done with initiation"

"Then let's go take care of business" Wolfram grinned, producing the digital tablet with directions to the extraction zone "Follow me" and as he set off Ursinia, Laser and Diabla exchanged quick glances before finding themselves doing just that.

Author's Notes:

So, another chapter down and we now have the names and weapons of our main and secondary team with one of those teams being formed, although currently unofficially.
But we're not done with initiation yet.
Also, I wasn't planning 10k+ words to be the standard chapter length for this story but four chapters in and here we are.

I'm typing this on the 27th of March after watching the Vol.8 finale and fuck it, you're getting spoilers here; killing Penny again and wasting her entire development and arc about personhood made me want to drop the show, it really did piss me off that much. I'll probably come back check out Vol.9 but right now I just don't care for it and the only silver lining I can take is that this AU has progressed beyond any real need for the source material.
Also the RWBY OC server Discord I was running has been deleted because honestly I can't justify having that much effort invested in it.

But anyway, let's summarise shall we?:
Remember Astra and AJ launched from pads near/next to each other so even allowing for the variations that Coco had put into each pad there's still a general direction for Astra to head in.
Further proof that Astra is a master of putting on a mask and faking it til they make it….But also, feel free to imagine Piccolo's "I can do it, I can win" speech from DBZ Abridged.
Of course the doubts drew the Grimm and of course the Grimm drew more Grimm, honestly though it was just an excuse to have something of my own design here and 'Winged Buffalo Grimm' is a joke idea that I wouldn't seriously use in anything other than the 'tutorial level' that is an Initiation.
And we have a new set of partners, meaning that both AJ and Astra have partnered up; so you can see how Team MARZ is gonna look.
Now here's out first look at Regalia's weapon Apex Scavenger, which I based partly on Kiramai Silver's weapon from Kiramager, though that was more heavily jack-hammer based.
I told you in her introduction Regalia had abs, now watch as she suplexes a Grimm.
In my head Regalia geeking out over Astra's weapon was one of those anime shots where the character is at a different angle/position in every frame.
Damn, Astra our here wearing bright white kicks jut to put their foot in their mouth like that.
So that's Regalia and Wolfram described as having hard to place accents.
I promise Regalia's Semblance isn't just for plot convenience.
And now we know what the students are looking for, that's what the relics are stored in.
Of course Wolfram found the Alpha.
And there's the kicker, Berserker, Wolfram's weapon, is so powerful in its' ranged mode that the recoil actually does Aura damage to him; just putting those self destructive tendencies out there.
The moment with the grenade was honestly a pleasure to write because in my head it was pure slapstick comedy.
"And I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll blow you up with a fucking grenade" because whilst I don't actually do allusion characters I did debate making Wolfram an allusion to the big bad wolf so I had to throw that line in.
I told you that we'd actually already met the secondary team characters, Ursinia was talking to AJ in Chapter 02 and spoke up last chapter but now we're getting our first proper look at her; a big, beefy corn-fed country girl with pig-tails who tips her hat with her stinger.
Also, Ursinia is a member of the daisy family and there are bright red ones, which combined with red tail scorpions gets you a colour and a name.
Yes her weapon is a pistol-gripped Grenade Launcher that turns into a bright gold broadsword, also as we see later in the chapter its' called 'The Adventurer' to give you a little insight into her character.
If you can't tell I love dunking on the old Rocket Lockers for being the stupidest thing ever…..yes Wolfram is from one of Menagerie's other settlements and yes, the kids are so bored out there that they use old drop pods as sleighs.
"Nothing wrong with the weapon, what I need to do is toughen up and plough through it" first clues towards one of Wolfram's major character flaws.
So there's Ursinia's Semblance, of the main eight students it was actually the last one I came up with, basically it works like Hazel's ability to not feel pain except she can only give it to other people.
And now we have relics….And the comment about never playing chess was just a bit of fun; but any students that find Pawns should just know that they're red-shirts in this story.
AJ really is making a lot of assumptions.
I love how in the space of half a chapter Athena-Jade has gone from the bad-ass to Disney tag along.
Oh Hops is definitely gonna stick as a nickname.
And here we see the immediate difference between these two and Astra and Regalia's partnership….Is this more or less awkward than Weiss and Ruby first trying to work together; the funny part is that both of them would have handled it like an absolute pro on their own.
Yes that was a Dungeons and Dragons joke and also, can you blame AJ for being a little miffed at this point?
But now we have our fourth member of Team MARZ's name, Zirconia Shadowmoon; with her last name being a nod to the Kamen Rider Black character Shadowmoon.
A better look at how Regalia's Semblance works, I tried hard to balance Look-See so it doesn't give her the answers, just a vibe and a general direction of what she needs, but not always what she thinks she needs.
Also can we just take a moment to appreciate the absolute dork that this Racoon Faunus is, also I'm sowing some seeds for her backstory and we'll get a better look at it before the end of this volume.
Astra and AJ are putting in work, already grabbing a second set of relics and taking destiny by the horns in the way that the initiation is designed to encourage.
"And they say wrestling's fake" this kid trained under Yang, of course they've got jokes.
'Friends?'…..Did your heart just grow three sizes?
Oh yeah, Athena-Jade and Zirconia are gonna be a dysfunctional pair for a while.
Empty locker, now who do we know who's got a spare set of relics handy…..
A reaction like that and AJ thinks she's gonna be team leader.
And once again with the failures to cooperate.
Zirconia's weapon is named Sunriser Cain, which is based on Kamen Rider Black RX's Sunriser belt and revolcane...So she's named after a synthetic precious stone, Shadowmoon and her weapon has 'Cain' in its' name….all coincidences right?
Okay and now we meet our last two Hunters, members of the secondary team.
Diabla Fuego is GNC/butch as fuck and her boots are totally doc martens.
Her weapons are called Peace and Quiet and no I'm not sorry for that.
Laser is a shade of green and yellow according to HTML colours, also Laser Greenback and Regalia were originally going to be the same character but ended up being broken down.
His appearance is based very loosely on Pokemon Go avatar items and that visor of his is Grand Oak's Glasses but RWBY style.
His weapon is a bull-pup SMG that turns into a katana and the stock is the translucent green plastic of a 90s pager or Gameboy colour….also a little trivia, I've recently started making Synthwave music under a new alias and Permadeath is a name I considered using but scrapped.
The Infernal Devices, Fire Ant Grimm that swarm and combine and honestly I might bring them back later because it's a good concept; I was just gonna use the Sulphur Fish because according to the artist they can do the same thing but we haven't actually seen it on screen yet so I'll let them have that.
Ursinia loves using grenades to say hello.
And that is Wolfram's Semblance, it turns the air into a solid state, now each characters' Semblance is a manifestation of part of their personality so it's a spoiler to say this but Wolfram's isn't what it seems….but that's for later on.
Look even in a world where everyone is named after a colour, Laser is just a tacky sounding name….it's like the Kyle-Chad of Remnant.
Is Diabla mean or just focused, we will see.
However, we have a four person team already formed and Team MARZ is waiting to happen.

Thank you to SumoSnipe, Funlander and Proto150 for their reviews on the last chapter.
A good deep cut but nah, Zirconia will have her own backstory that's important to this story.
Caliginous Null was probably never a major threat in the main timeline of FADE, he likely never rose to as much prominence or survived.

As always thank you to everyone that reads this, with a special thanks to those of you that follow, favourite and review.