Vertiya let out a slight yawn as she stretched out her back, but she made care to not be too loud as she did. It was still dark out, and she was the last one to be on watch, so it was still at least an hour before the sun was expected to rise. Sure, Vertiya was against the idea of a fire at first because it could well bring unwanted attention from both the obvious light and the occasional crackle that echoed in the surrounding silence, but the night had been kind to them and the warm tendrils of heat that the fire exuded definitely kept her comfortable.
Vertiya had a keen eye, though, and as the fire was lit hours ago, she had in the far away distance seen some figure atop a cliff, walking away as soon as the decrepit room they were staying in had started to glow with the sunset-orange of the fire. Seeing that figure had had Vertiya concerned, but they'd been a long way off and nothing had happened throughout the night, at least as far as she was aware. They'd rotated shifts of keeping watch so that everyone was able to get some rest, and even though Professor Naranja was content with staying up the night, she was currently resting as well, looking surprisingly peaceful in sleep considering her usual strict demeanour. True, Vertiya and the rest of her team had seen her drop her usual manners on occasion over the course of the mission thus far, but for the majority of it she'd been the teacher they'd expected. Still, Vertiya was glad she was here, because even whilst asleep, she felt a little safer knowing that they had a fully trained Huntress with them. Vertiya was still curious about how her and her father knew each other as that wasn't made entirely clear – she assumed they had gone to school together – but Professor Naranja had said it was probably a better conversation between her father and herself, and Vertiya had respected that decision and decided to leave it until she next spoke to him, or returned back home.
Until then, Vertiya had a job to do, and as unexciting as it was, she needed to concentrate in order to either listen out for any unusual movement, or spot anything that could either be Grimm or otherwise hostile. With a mind that was sometimes known to wander, Vertiya had to do a lot in order to make sure she'd stay on top of her own thoughts, tying her hair up in a loose ponytail so that it wouldn't distract her. On top of that, she took out a yellow card, flipping it between her fingers as something to fidget with, because she'd often found that that would help her stay calm in similar situations. There was plenty of food from the supplies they'd scavenged, but Vertiya decided to stay away from them, just because she'd been caught out eating before, and was not about to let that happen again.
A sudden rustle from behind got Vertiya on edge, though, and with a spiked heart rate, she spun, card in hand by the side of her head ready to throw if required. However, when she saw that it was just Ruzovi, rustling in her makeshift bed, Vertiya dropped her hand with a relieved sigh, smiling a little as Ruzovi sat up, rubbed her eyes and let out a soft yawn, before she turned to see Vertiya.
"I'm up too… early aren't I," Ruzovi said in a sleepy voice, wiggling out of her small covers and making her way over to Vertiya, sitting down next to her.
"Well, it's not quite sunrise yet, so you'd have enough time for a bit more rest if you needed it," Vertiya said in a hushed tone as so not to wake the other three, giving them a quick glance to check they were all asleep before turning back to Ruzovi, sitting down next to her. "Or are you not able to sleep?"
"To be honest, the sleeping bags and mats we had back in initiations was the first time I've not slept on an actual bed, and I'm still not good at it," Ruzovi admitted, shivering as a chilling breeze swept through the large, uneven cracks in the wall. The fire didn't quite go out from it, but the draught was enough to make Ruzovi huddle up to Vertiya to keep warm, and to be honest Vertiya wasn't exactly going to reject the shared body heat. Vertiya wrapped an arm around Ruzovi's shoulders as she snuggled into Vertiya, and as Ruzovi rested her head on Vertiya's shoulder, Vertiya rested hers on the top of Ruzovi's.
"Well, if you want to sleep on me, you're more than welcome to," Vertiya said with a relaxed, yet reassuring expression. "I'm not exactly going anywhere, and I can still throw cards sat down."
"Really? That would be great," Ruzovi said with a smile, nestling into Vertiya's shoulder a bit more, before lifting her head. "Your shoulder is not the most comfortable of things to sleep on," she added in a tired tone, before settling on Vertiya's chest. "This is better," she mumbled after, almost immediately falling asleep.
Vertiya was a little red at this point. It wasn't as though she was exactly used to people being on or otherwise near her… well… if it was anyone else Vertiya would have had choice words and actions she'd use, but because it was Ruzovi, who was still incredibly innocent at heart, Vertiya was fine with it. She had to adjust a little to make sure she was comfortable, because although Ruzovi settled in pretty quickly Vertiya was less accustomed to it. After making sure the arm that wasn't around Ruzovi was still able to throw a card should it come to it, Vertiya relaxed against the wall behind her, her facial expression calming as she did little more than listen to the soft breathing of Ruzovi.
Professor Naranja was the first to wake up, just before the sun rose and as such just before Pluto. She was up and out of bed with haste, looking over to see Ruzovi still asleep on Vertiya. Professor Naranja's expression was somewhere between confused and curious, but Vertiya just matched it with a shrug, to which the professor shrugged as well, picking up her shield from the floor and attaching it to her back. Pluto, as always, was up pretty quickly as well, but both Ruzovi and Yimesz took their time getting out of bed – or more accurately in Ruzovi's case, off Vertiya – but there wasn't a massive rush, as they were still waiting on a pick-up team. Professor Naranja was confident that it would be with them within a couple of hours max, but until that point there was little for them to do other than watch and wait. They needed to be awake in case the aircraft came by, but otherwise, there wasn't much to do other than waiting tediously for the first sign of anything.
At least, that was the original plan. Vertiya was the first to spot a small Ursa, which had climbed up the outside of the building they were in and had appeared through one of the holes in the walls, and although she reacted quickly with a red card and knocked it out of the room and towards the floor a long way below, its cry was still easily audible within the building, and would more than likely have echoed through at the very least the nearby area of the city.
"Well, that's knocked this building off the list of safe places to stay at," Pluto said, leaning his head out one of the cracks to see Grimm slowly making their way over to the building the five of them were staying in, looking up to where the Ursa had fallen from. "I'm going to strongly recommend moving before we get swarmed."
"Probably the best idea," Vertiya said, getting a few cards into her hands as precaution measures as she looked out of the window. They were a few stories up after all, and… jumping was a risky option from this height, they'd probably need to get a bit lower before they could reasonably make a jump. The ground floor would be overrun by the time they got there, after all. "Let's move."
The five of them made for an escape, quickly descending floors as the sounds of Grimm underneath them slowly increased in volume. By the time they got two floors up from the ground, the sounds of the Grimm were loud enough to tell that not only was the bottom floor overrun, they had spilled into the floor directly underneath them.
"We're going to need to jump out this floor," Vertiya said, echoing what the others were thinking as she looked around, hair still tied up, trying to find a good area to escape from. There were some cracks in the walls, but nothing that would come down easily. Vertiya looked towards an area of wall that seemed the most cracked, and got a handful of red cards out. "See that area of wall there? I'm going to red card it a few times to weaken it. Pluto, would you be able to punch a hole in it once it's weaker?"
"I can handle that," Professor Naranja said, pulling her shield off her back. "Just get the wall done, we don't have a lot of time."
Vertiya nodded, turning back to the wall and throwing red cards at calculated positions in and around the cracks, and the building shuddered a little as she did, but nothing that seemed too serious as it was a large skyscraper. Once she was done she turned back to Professor Naranja, stowing her remaining cards in her pocket for the time being. "Alright, it should be good now."
"Good. The four of you, stay behind me, and whatever you do, don't stop," Professor Naranja said, putting her shield directly in front of her, aimed towards the cracks in the wall. Team VYPR looked at each other with slight nervousness, but when the professor yelled, "Now!" they turned, running towards the wall behind her. Professor Naranja let out a yell before ducking her head behind the shield, putting all of her body behind it as she crashed through the wall, dropping to the ground a couple of stories below. The other four jumped out of the hole, clearing a reasonable distance as they landed outside the city limits, and after a short delay, Professor Naranja walked over to them, clearing rubble off her shield and clothes. "That was not the cleanest charge I've done, but it at least did the job."
"As long as-" Vertiya started to say, before she got interrupted by similar rumbling that came from when she had thrown explosive cards at the wall of the building, just much, much louder. The five of them turned towards the building they had just jumped out of, and realised that although they hadn't noticed it whilst staying in it, the building was on its last legs, and their crashing a hole through one of the lower floors had been the straw that broke the camel's back. The skyscraper suddenly dropped down a story, before slowly falling towards where the five were stood, with a crashing sound that was getting louder exponentially.
Vertiya's survival instinct kicked in, and she was about to run away from the falling building, when a sharp yank from the side pulled her off her feet, as Pluto pulled her sideways from the way the building was falling. "A while ago I watched a film called Prometheus, and after watching that, and having enough common sense, I know that you don't run in a straight line away from a falling thing that would crush you when you could just move to the side," he said, with a raised eyebrow at Vertiya. "Please tell me that isn't what you were intending to do there."
"I… umm… no?" Vertiya said, a little awkwardly, as the five of them moved to the side a little more so that they wouldn't be caught by any rubble that shot out when the building finally crashed to the floor, a shockwave coming out from it. "Look, the aircraft is here," she pointed out, drawing attention away from herself and her questionable instinct.
Vertiya was right though, because flying above the city was another Atlesian aircraft, that was flying over the toppled skyscraper, and soon came down to ground near where the five of them were standing. A few Atlesian soldiers jogged out of the aircraft, running over and making sure they were alright, but Professor Naranja waved them off, taking Vertiya and her team to the aircraft. She quickly went in to the pilot cabin once they'd all made it into the holding area, but she came out soon after.
"Just making sure that the pilot is aware of Nevermores, considering what happened to our last bird," Professor Naranja explained, answering Vertiya's unasked question. "Well, for a first mission, I will admit there was a little more to it than I would have liked, but I think you all performed admirably."
Vertiya smiled at that, as she looked out the window as the cargo door closed, and as the aircraft lifted up off the ground, this time smoothly heading back to Atlas, she couldn't help but feel that if this were what missions were like, she'd love to go on more. Sure, she may have gotten injured off this one, but that was due to a lack of preparation, and silly mistakes. She wouldn't be making those again in the future.