BANG!

A Beowulf howled in pain as it dropped to the ground before dispersing into black mist and faded into thin air. Up ahead a figure was seen dodging and weaving while kicking the other Grimm away from him.

Mercury was having a blast as he kept jumping away from the claws of the pack of Grimm Beowolf, killing them efficiently as they came after one on one.

Hearing a growl from behind, Mercury ducked and looked up seeing both Grimm swiping at each other missing their intended target. The said target smirked as he crouched before maneuvering his body to a Chinese get up position. On his hands, he kicked both creatures in the stomach with side kicks before pushing himself upwards onto one of their shoulders and jumped off before coming back down and landed a heavy axe kick on the first Grimm shooting a compressed air blast through the head and then did a spinning kick to the second one, shooting a blast of air through the stomach.

Killed instantly both Grimm disappeared as Mercury relaxed his stance and let out a small yawn as he stretched out his arms.

"Man, that was boring." He said as he put his hands in his pockets and started walking towards a random direction. "I thought this would be more of a fight, but it was no fun. So far I've only found Beowulf Grimm and those are the small fry."

He groaned in slight annoyance as he continued walking. Mercury was a laidback man but that didn't mean he didn't enjoy a challenge. He always strived to be stronger than normal, not the strongest because that would be boring and there would be no one left to fight so yeah that wasn't an option.

"Still would it kill anybody to give him one good fight during this initiation, I don't care who it is, whether it's a Grimm or a student or that Emerald chick, just grant this one wish." Mercury sighed to himself as he knew that it was pointless.

"Then again, I probably wouldn't mind fighting that Emerald girl. While she is a bit grouchy, she doesn't seem all that bad." He commented as he continued walking unaware of the Grimm that coming right behind him. "Then again, I don't know women that well." He finished shrugging his shoulders when the Grimm that was behind him lurked over his form.

It let out a roar as it raised its claws and was ready to swipe claws at the boy when suddenly a slicing sound was heard through the wind.

Opening his eyes in confusion, Mercury turned around and saw the Grimm with the head sliced off from its body before dispersing in the air.

"What the?"

"You're welcome." He turned his head to the voice that enter the clearing and saw Emerald with her weapons Sage and Jade in kusarigama form before they reversed into their sickle form and then standby as she put them behind her back.

"Where did you come from?" Mercury asked her as she narrowed her eyes at him. Walking over to him, she gave him a glare and scoffed at him.

"Well, are you or are you not going to say thank you?"

"Uh… thanks…" Mercury deadpanned as Emerald grumbled and did the same thing Neo did, kicked him in the shin.

"Ow!" Mercury yelped as he turned to her while clutching his foot. "Easy! I just fixed these boots the other day, I do not need them damaged by you and pint-size."

'Pint-size?' Emerald thought before figuring out that he was referring to Neo. Shaking her head in annoyance, she turned around and started walking in a random direction. "Come on."

"Where you running off to?"

"If my hunch is correct, I saw the temple up that way." Emerald stated as she pointed in the direction of where she predicted the location temple would be. "If we leave now, we can avoid attracting any Grimm."

"Aww, that sounds boring." Mercury complained. "Too afraid to fight some Grimm?"

"No, I know when to fight for survival and when not to for stupid ones." Emerald said as she walked up to him. "Listen, you are my partner now and like it or not we're pretty much stuck together, we are not going to fight any Grimm unless absolutely necessary not for fun, got it?" She told him in a stern tone as the kickboxer just raised his hands in surrender.

"Alright, alright, no need to get your panties in a twist." He said. "If you say we don't need to fight then I won't." he had a smirk on his face though. "Yet."

Emerald groaned as she pinched the upper brow of her forehead. "You are impossible." She said as she walked past him and into the deep forest.

Mercury chuckled as he walked behind her with hands behind his hand. "That's what my old man said before I had to kill him."

"…" Thinking it was a joke Emerald just groaned once more.

Unknown to both of them, they were being monitored by a camera that followed their movement.

Adam was walking by himself as he trudged through the forest silently, surrounded by the bushy trees above him. It's been 10 minutes since they entered the forest and he still hasn't found Ilia.

He wasn't worried for her, no, he knew that Ilia was capable of handling herself. He was worried about who her partner would be if he wasn't able to find her soon. He did not want her to be treated by a human that hated Faunus.

It's not that he didn't trust her, he had a hard time trusting humans. They both did when they were young, not many of them gave them a reason to be trustful around humans.

Adam then calmed down as he realized he was getting off topic and that he needed to focus on finding Ilia. Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes and focused on sensing Ilia's aura as the area around him became silent and the world became all black.

The area in Darkness was what helped him find her whenever he needed to or when she was in trouble. He then focused his energy on finding his friend, sending out a small burst of red aura energy he was immediately hit with a small flash of a multitude of colors in return and the energy was coming from…

Right behind him.

Feeling a tap on his shoulder, Adam stop using Eagle Vision and turned around seeing Ilia waving at him with a smile on her face, she was sitting on a tree branch while swinging her legs back and forth.

"Hey there, stranger." She greeted him as she jumped off and landed on the ground perfectly before walking over to him. "Practicing meditation in the middle of the day again, now that's just rude, we're in the middle of an exam and we haven't even passed the first question yet." She joked.

Adam sighed to himself as he put Wilt and Blush back onto his side but kept his left hand on the trigger.

"Really Ilia, hide and seek again?" he asked her as she replaced her smile with a curious gaze before went into deep thinking.

"Well, to be fair, I did see two other people here before meeting you but I just ignored them and headed straight for you. One was very bouncy and the other was wearing gear like she was some sort of tomboy but also a serious person, like you."

"Ilia," he growled with a tic mark appearing on his forehead. "You're suppose to be partners with the first person you looked at, and you skipped two of them."

"Nope." She said with a wide grin on her face. "While skydiving, the first person I saw was you and Professor Hazel did say that the first person we land our eyes on is our partner for the next four years, so looks like we're stuck for the next four years." She explained.

Suddenly she felt a small bop on the head.

"Oww!"

"Idiot, the first person we make eye contact with is our partner for the next four years not who we first see." He corrected her as the latter glared at him before playfully sticking out her tongue at him.

"Oh, don't give me that look." He rolled his eyes at her as he started walking in the other direction. "Come on, let's go find the temple."

Ilia grumbled under her breath as she continued rubbing her head and walked after her brother figure.

"That's the last pairing." Hazel reported as he swiped his finger across the tablet. He was monitoring the students while Salem was gazing at the forest with a curious expression on her face.

"This year is sure to turn out quite interesting won't it Hazel?" she asked as the latter just nodded his head.

"Indeed, we have some interesting pairings here. Cinder Fall and Neo Politan, Emerald Sustrai and Mercury Black…" Hazel paused for a moment before he continued. "Adam Taurus and Ilia Amitola."

"Hmm, you forgot the last pair Hazel."

"My apologies, ma'am but this last duo concerns me to a degree." Hazel said as he pulled up a screen showing a picture of two girls, one that had a pink bow atop of her head and the other had a pair of goggles on atop of hers.

"How so?"

"No need to fret, Hazel. I already know about it, I had a chat with her grandfather beforehand." Salem reassured.

"And he's okay with this?" Hazel doubted. "Forgive me for intruding but last time I checked, that man was afraid of letting his granddaughter socialize, how were you able to convince him to let her come here?"

"I have my ways." Salem said cryptically and Hazel knew that she was not going to say any more. He knew that whatever they talked about was their business alone and he decided not pry any further.

"Anyway, I have a question, what items did you use for relics this year?" Hazel asked as Salem remained quiet still gazing at the forest in front of her.

"Salem?"

"Oh, nothing fancy, I decided to use crystal orbs. Each pair has a different color and representation, one for each person and another for their partner with the corresponding match."

"And in what way are they related to?"

Salem had a smile on her face as she faced him.

"The Four Seasons."

Near the temple, two girls approached the building from the bushes with no trouble at all.

"It seems we have arrived at our destination, friend Carmine." The girl with a pink bow on top shouted in joy.

The said girl Carmine came up behind her partner revealing herself. She was a young woman with long wavy auburn hair with a single silver streak, golden eyes with freckles underneath her eyes. She was wearing a dark navy cropped long-sleeve t-shirt with a metal chain-like top attached leaving her navel exposed. She also had a white cape with crimson trimmed showing her emblem, worn bandages wrapped around her wrists and crimson torn off booty shorts that match her tatter scarf and thigh-length leather boots. Additionally, she had goggles on top of her head, black belts with sheaths holding her Sai weapons and single belts on her right sleeve and left leg.

"So, this is the abandoned temple that our headmistress told us about, huh?" she commented though the other girl thought it was a question so she answered her back.

"Why yes it is, friend Carmine."

"Nice job Penny." Carmine complimented.

Penny was a young girl with short curly orange hair with a small ahoge on top that went down to her chin with a pink bow settled on the back of her head. She had bright green eyes, light skin and like Carmine she had freckles. She was wearing a shaded white and gray old-fashioned blouse with short gray overalls and a black and green collar with a matching pair of stockings that had green lines on the side. On her back was a small and thin backpack.

"It was my pleasure." She said giving a salute to her friend.

Carmine was about to speak again, when a growl was heard through the air. Raising an eyebrow, the auburn turned around as did Penny and they saw two Ursa Majors appear as they stalked them.

They let out a small roar before getting back into position as it was ready to attack.

Carmine simply smiled as she simply rested a hand on her hip right near her Sai while Penny just tilted her head in in curiosity at the Grimm before her.

"Are these one of the few things we simply eliminate?" Penny asked.

"That's right." Carmine answered her. "So, no need to hold back on them, okay? They aren't human and the only thing on their minds is killing us so don't hesitate to fight back."

"Understood, friend Carmine." Penny replied as she then held her hands out in front of her, her arms straight out with her right over her left and her hands formed into fists. "I'm combat ready!"

"Alright," Carmine then let out a wicked grin as she stared down at the Grimm. "Let's get this party started."

Author's Note: Okay, this is the month. The month I am actually going to work on this story and stop stalling it dammit! I've been doing that for two years too long! It ends now!

Anyway, to the main reason i'm doing this note. Sorry if some of the characters are a bit OOC, I'm still trying to make them act on their original personalities and mix some of that stuff with what they would be like if they did go to Beacon. Role Reversal anybody?

Adding Carmine to the mix, I don't know if you guys like her or hate her, I'm neither because she's still a new character to me but I added because at the moment she was the only person I could think of to help form the team along with Penny for Adam and Ilia.

Also Penny is completely human in this story. I won't have her die but I will have a fate for her that would put her in a state of death, again I'm not going to kill her at all. I also edited Salem's appearance after watching volume 6, so sorry for those who like the first edit.

Alright, that's all I have to say and I hope you guys enjoyed reading this chapter.

Read, Review and See you guys next time!

Chaos HellLaser descending back to Hell!