"You alright there, Argos?" I looked back to my tall partner; we've been walking presumably northward for quite a while. I received a thumbs up in response while he scanned our surroundings. We had taken to a formation while trudged forward: Noir in front, Taz and me in the middle, and Argos in the rear. Nothing popped yet, which was a good for us. Up ahead, fucking finally, was a much larger clearing than the one I had met Argos in. Upon entering it, we saw that it was of such great expanse, that it could be easily spotted from a nearby tall cliff.

"Here were are!" Noir announced, pointing ahead before mumbling, "Fucking told you, Taz."

"Hey man," Taz held his hands up with a smile, "Don't get salty at me. Not all weather predictions are right y'know." That was a surprisingly good point coming from the guy who had been rambling about random subjects while we walked.

"I have every right to be salty." Noir grumbled. "Anyway, there's the temple! Let's get going!"

The temple mentioned was nothing special, really. It had a rectangular base and held up a domed roof with a circle of Doric columns, decorated with vines and cracks that grew over the ages. The bookworm in me would have stopped for a while, if we didn't have such an important mission. We had finally reached destination one, but managed to get ahead to hold a hand out at the entrance.

"Wait a sec," I said. Looking into the space within the columns. Sitting on stone pedestals were… keys. Actual keys. Yet, I didn't trust the space. Concentrating to my eyes, I activated my semblance for the second time today. Time slowed rapidly, and my eyes wandered the small space containing the second step in our objective.

No obvious slots for projectiles or traps in the pillars. I checked off in a mental list. No cracks in the ceiling, no concern for falling on us. Check. Ground would have collapsed already under the pedestals. Check.

"It's clear." I spoke after I deactivated my semblance.

"Does your semblance involve checking traps or whatever?" Taz queried.

"Kinda. No. Not really." I answered simply and advanced, with the others behind me. After quick observations, I noticed there were supposedly two keys of a single color, a way for us to unify team members, I guessed. Two keys had already been taken, one blue and the other yellow were left without a partner.

Will we be taking a key with a team already in motion?

I read the message from Argos and shrugged. Any team would be the same as another to join, the chemistry would need to be built from the ground up anyway. In the end, I chose a red key, and Taz and Noir decided on the lonely blue key.

"Back to the beacon, I suppose?" I asked. The green beacon was still very visible from where we stood, conveniently. I looked ahead of us, seeing Taz and Noir already starting to jog back to the green light's source. Argos nodded, and we walked out of the temple.

A few other students could be seen making their way in our direction now, a few familiar faces, and the others were either too far away to recognize among those in the Great Hall with us earlier. Not wanting to let this place get too crowded so soon, I decided it was time to rush our way toward the beacon.

You sure? You don't want to team up with anyone else to get there?

I read that and shook my head. There was really no point; we'd be put into teams eventually anyway. Argos nodded in understanding and we made our way out of the small temple and towards the green beacon.

About twenty minutes later…

The trek back was uneventful. We ignored any growling from the surroundings. Our priority was getting to the beacon as soon as possible. There would be the occasional pop-up Grimm that we'd just dodge and roll past and continue running to the beacon. It had been quite the run, but we finally made it to another large clearing, with structures surrounding the source of the green beacon. Each structure was a small metal tube in a color matching those of the keys. I could barely make out Taz and Noir sprinting their way to the blue hut and entered it, and gaped as the blue tube descended slowly into the ground.

"What." A flat question spilled from my mouth after the spectacle. After approaching the group of the structures, we could see that some others had already submerged into the earth. "Where in Remnant does this lead?"

I was answered with a shrug from Argos, before he started walking over to the red structure. Closer inspection revealed a keyhole in which our red key fit perfectly, to our elation. Upon entering it, we saw there was actually much bigger on the inside (BC: Yes, that's a reference, and I'm not sorry for it.). Curved white walls surrounded us. There was a chair, which I sat in because my chest was fit to burst after running for nearly half an hour. Then, a ding from my Scroll.

Asthma? A former Sanctum tournament champion has asthma?

"Hey man," I slowed my breathing down, the burning in my chest subsiding a little. "I'm only human. With mystical powers. I'm not a machine. Even then, machines break down."

Argos nodded. Note to self, I thought. Rama's ramblings actually make me sound wise. Indeed, they did; they helped add more speaking options to my current vernacular.

So, I suppose we wait for the other half of our team?

"Yeah," I answered, now fully recovered. I mean, Taz and Noir took the remaining blue key, so the rest of their team must have been there and allowed their tube to descend. "Shouldn't be too long now, there were plenty of people heading for the temple."

Turns out I was correct. Within minutes, two very familiar faces barged into the tube with weapons at the ready, as if they expected some sort of miniature Grimm was on the inside. Elysia and Nero looked at me and Argos, weapons drawn. Elysia loosened her grip on her staff, while Nero still kept his hands covered in a pair of dark red, intimidating metallic gloves whose fingers extended into large claws. The gloves also extended into forearm greaves.

"Teammates?" Elysia asked, with a kind smile as she lifted up a red key. Nero simply looked me over with eyes a little colder than when we first met, sighed and crossed his arms. Ignoring the Faunus's attitude, I raised our own red key and confirmed her guess.

"Teammates." I looked at our group and could already feel a sort of tension building, mainly around Nero towards me. However, before I could make any attempt at easing said tension, the tube shifted; we were descending towards whatever else this exam had in store for us. It felt like a normal elevator, except with a much more impending doom sort of feeling added to it. The tube also made movements to the left and right, unorthodox directions for conventional elevators. After a few more moments, our tubes' movement stopped and the door we entered through opened to reveal what could basically be described as a Hellscape.

Lava poured from crevices around us, heating up the room quickly. A large lake of lava sat in the middle of the room, allowing a respectable amount of land around it. Stepping out and looking around, we turned and saw that the elevator let us out from a wall of black stone the extended its theme into the ground beneath us. To our left was another team of four, with Taz and Noir being easily recognizable and urging their group to meet up with ours. To our right, was another group that I supposed wanted the same. The large lava pool (BC: Lava pool~, it's a pool of lava~) bubbled menacingly. I took that into account immediately. Taz and Noir's team made it to us first, comprising of two boys and two girls. One of which I identified immediately.

"Hey," I called out to the girl I met eyes with during the written exam. I immediately noticed that we were the same height. In her hands was a two-sided sword with its metals painted indigo and black. "I remember you from the exam."

"And I, you." She said. She looked much different with her armor on than her blue hoodie. Her hair was tied in a messy French braid, and her skinny jeans really helped to accentuate the athletic muscles underneath. She was also rather well-endowed for a 17-year old, so I made a personal note to do my best not to stare. "Not many people think to focus on me again after I'm out of their sight."

"Understandable, I guess." I held out my hand to shake. "Railen Roame." Her body seemed to tighten up at my hand's advance in her direction. She sighed, but made no attempt to reciprocate.

"C-Calliope Brekker." She answered before taking a deep breath, and the rest of her team gave her some space. "Sorry. I'm not really one for making physical contact."

"Oh, sorry then." I offered sincerely. As she gathered her nerves, her teammates stepped up to introduce themselves.

The team's other girl had sunset orange hair who stood a clear foot taller than me. I felt absolutely miniscule next to her. Her pale complexion and freckles simply radiated openness, but her sharp eyes and defined jaw were definitely intimidating. She sheathed her longsword and put her worn kite shield down in order to give me quite a bone-crushing handshake. If it weren't for Aura, I think I would have needed professional medical assistance.

"Anora Orabelle," She greeted. I smiled back, trying not to reveal how painful her grip was. Her tone was of one who had a very disciplined upbringing. If her chest plate, accompanied with white tunic and sash, were any indication, she had trained hard to able to wield her weaponry. "Nice to meet you, Railen. If I may ask something that may be a bit personal?"

"Sure, shoot." I responded.

"Didn't you use a shield in the Sanctum tournaments?" She dropped quite a bomb of a question on me, one I'd rather not answer at the moment. She was right, and I definitely was still holding my short sword and dagger-gun.

"Um," I started, thinking of a way to diffuse this little issue. "Time and place, Anora. I'll have to answer that another time."

"Alright." She responded simply. Thank goodness she let that go. This definitely wasn't the time nor place to talk about that. Taz and Noir introduced themselves to Nero and Elysia. Taz had apparently had his flirty approaches shot down by Elysia, his pout and Noir's mirth were signs of it, along with a smirk from the staff wielding girl. With these two group meeting up, the third made themselves known, approaching with smiles and weapons still drawn. Also split 50/50, one of the girls approached me while the rest of her team dispersed to meet the rest of the group.

"Heya!" She stood a few inches taller than me, but not as much as Anora did. Her long, dark pink hair was kept in a high ponytail. Her light blue eyes seemed to shine with friendliness. She extended a hand. "I'm Cherry Maraschino. You?"

"Railen Roame." I saw that her weapon were large red tonfa and could easily see triggers on both batons that indicated these were also guns. Her clothes also matched her name, which really seemed to tickle my interest. "Rather appropriate name, Cherry?"

"Ya," She shrugged, still smiling. "My brother always said my hair reminded him of cherries. Might as well go with it."

"You're rather… smiley." I commented.

"Well, it's important for someone to stay positive when times get dire."

"That…" I take that in for a moment before finishing my sentence. "sounds like a good way to see things"

"Glad you think so." Cherry's smile was quite vibrant. Before I could manage another word out, the ground trembled around us. The very ground underneath us was rumbling, and seemed to get strong as one got closer to the large lava pool

"Jack! Cress! Acacio!" Cherry called for her teammates. "By me!" At this, they gathered close in a diamond-shaped formation. I looked to my left to see Anora standing ahead of Taz and Noir, with Calliope holding her sword tightly. Anora was keeping her kite shield held up high. Nero stepped up beside me looking at me with something along the lines of skepticism and boredom. I looked behind me to see Elysia and Argos nodding at me. Then, the lava pool pretty much exploded. Lava shot straight up then right back down, though some splattered against the edge of the pool. Anora and Cherry had to take a few steps back to avoid it.

"WWWRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAARGGGH!" A screeching roar echoed through the cavern; the resident of the lava pool had made itself known to some annoyances in its home.

"Well…" I looked up at the Grimm monstrosity in front of us. Its wings were tattered, a telltale sign of its species. Its face wide, with hatred-filled red eyes under a white Grimm skull mask that contrasted against its completely black body. Its body was more than five stories tall, and it appeared to be standing up straight in the lava pool. It then extended its coal-black arms and presented its sharp claws. "Fuck."

We were fighting a Raptor Grimm.

(Author's Note: Heyo, Bleach Cadelina here! If you haven't noticed, there may be more little quips by me midstory in parenthesis with the initials "BC". Also, finals have started, so I wanted to get something out before I get totally swamped. Now, for some Review responses.

First of all, I want to thank everyone for being so patient while I fix the story after the whole broken computer debacle. Go back and read the revived 3rd chapter if you haven't already yet!

Hiero II: Yeah, I know, they seem kinda short, but I'm trying to make sure that each chapter is at least 1,500 words. And don't worry, these characters will become much more fleshed out once the story progresses into school time.

xxxcidexxx: I try my best! Hate to leave the readers waiting so long no matter what.

ultima-owner: Yes, it is quite the useful Semblance

Taz-the-monster: Thanks!

Inkly: Yeah, I was thinking of a way to have a unique kind of exam.

Once again, thanks so much for reading, and I hope you enjoy it!

Next most likely update: Early/Mid June)