His curly hair spread out in various directions as his body moved through the air. Lance was flying to the next island, keeping his wings flattened horizontally for him to glide. The wind wasn't in the exact correct spot for him to just surf the air current, but he was still able to keep himself afloat by strongly flapping his wings once. His aura was able to amplify how strong he pushed, giving him more lift as to keep him elevated at the correct height. The smell of the sea was nostalgic for him but not in the way that most people would assume. They associate that feeling with memories of their past, a simpler time when they had the childlike wonderment driving them through it. But with the avian Faunus, it didn't feel that way to him. Even with him not remembering his own past, and even if this was somehow his past- it felt more akin to him reading into someone else's childhood. The feeling was there but these memories, if they existed…were they actually his?

The questions echoed in his mind as he landed on a rock standing triumphantly in the face of the waking sea. He took this moment to look upon the shore of this new island he wanted to investigate. It was made of sand and grassy dirt, blending into one another in a chaotic yet natural pattern. Along the treeline were large ferns that obscured the ground around the tree's base and roots. Beyond the first set of trees was a metallic object or device that seemingly was where the digging site was. What was more intriguing was the path leading into the forest towards this digsite: it was paved. That same concrete path led to a destroyed metal bridge and what are the remains of a landing pad. Atlas personnel must have built these as a way to ship dust supplies out from the island. But why something so advanced and modern on an island that was known for its more ancient style? Were the Atlesians really that concerned with the well-being of their technology here? And why was it destroyed now? Did nature weather it away with storms or was it sabotaged years prior?

So many questions kept ringing in Lance's mind, shaking himself from his zoning to prepare himself for another leap. As the wind picked up, he would launch from the rock- the force applied causing it to crumble into the sea moments after lift-off. The brown-haired Faunus didn't bother to look back to see it, but instead heard the tumbling tower of stone and splash of seawater. The leap brought him plenty of meters into the air and allowed him to glide safely onto the shore, landing right next to the mass of metal and asphalt along the line. Various plant life was spreading onto it, breaking open the once strong foundation and leaving cracks everywhere. Even flowers were beginning to sprout through them, showing that nature eventually takes all things back once more. And as the Faunus walked along the stoney path into the forest, he noticed that plenty of trees were cleared out only meters past the beginning line. Stumps were everywhere, rotting away and some sprouting smaller less impactful plants. Mounds of dirt piled higher than the trees, the pavement seeping into smoothed out dry dirt. Clouds from far above began to close in, blocking out portions of the sun's rays. Small drills, varied carts, and larger digging equipment littered the area. Most seemed worse for wear, but others….

They seemed new.

Drills were placed neatly over a tarp, lined up in an orderly fashion of sizes. Other hand-tools used for digging were clean and spotless and laid in another section of the tarp. There was even a large excavation digger most likely used to pick up larger amounts of dirt, thus explaining the large piles. And that same digger was in perfect shape. It appeared as if it just came out of the factory, was built, and used only days prior. There were even vaguely fresh footprints in the ground…ones that the avian didn't leave.

Was someone here on the island before his team was? Perhaps people were looking for more dust despite the restrictions? But why here- why not just buy dust at a shop or find another place to mine the ores?

And why did it feel like these questions were piling up too fast?

What concerned Lance the most was the digger. To him, this meant someone had come to the island and actually assembled this machine; pieces had to be brought onto the island by ship- air or sea. The brown-haired leader took step closer to the contraption, a new feeling entering his body and one he had been intimate with: being watched. He could feel the air around him being closed in, as if the very molecules of dust hanging in the air were documenting his very movements. His stride stopped once he stood beside the digging device, able to see its sheen so much better now. It felt warm, perhaps because of the sun's rays beating down on its light gray exterior. But maybe it was warm because it was used fairly recently…

As that hypothesis came to him, he noticed a mark near the back of the digger. It was three claw-like marks going down at an angle, marked specifically on the blackened steel as to show the scratch more prominently. Lance would drag a finger down the center mark as he asked himself:

Where have I seen this before?

Just as he finished the sentence in his mind, he was blinded by a flash of red. His eyes widened, his heartbeat quickened, and shot back as he placed his hands on the hilt of his daggers. His breath became quickened as well while he scanned the clearing. Just like before, there wasn't a single person to be found.

A quick fade of red, a brief moment of screams and the sound of fire. The red faded as his weapons were drawn, his breathing becoming much heavier now. He whipped around far more often and quickly, trying to grab as much information as seemingly possible within those flicks of his head and eyes. Still, nothing. Not even a single Grimm.

A strong gust of wind came blowing in and knocked a plank of wood onto the ground with a nice thud. Lance gasped as he turned to see where it landed, another seering red fade coming in. His vision completely changed for a brief instant- a dark night with a forest set ablaze as a man stood with a gun raised. A blazing tree landed on top of him, completely obscuring where the man was. A fade of red again.

This time, Lance screamed out in a panic as he dropped his daggers and tripped backwards- having reacted from the tree that had landed in front of him. But there was no tree, no fire…it wasn't even night right now. All there was before him was the digging site, the one he had been investigating moments ago.

Lance was struggling to breathe, his vision blurry and his body shaking. Was…was this fear? How long had it been since he felt this? What did he just do to feel this? All he had a question about now was the mark…where did he see that?

Then he guided a finger along the scar down his face…the same angle.

It was his scar. He remembered his scar.

"Laaaaance!" Ruby would cry out.

"Lance!" Yang yelled afterward.

The rest of team SPYR had reunited on their first island and discussed the situation they got themselves in. But none of them were able to get in contact with their team leader- he wasn't answering his scroll. Concerned and worried about said leader, the quartet took off for the next island. They were together as their group, coming along a broken stoney path. The digging equipment they saw from on the shoreline was in plain sight, easily spotted now that they were closer by. Penny was the first one to spot Lance when they appeared in the clearing- he was leaning over a workbench under a large wooden awning. She quickly took off running towards him, the trio following suit with their own runs.

Lance could hear the footsteps approaching him and readied the dagger already in his hand, relaxing his grip when he realized it was his team. He quickly sheathed his weapon and turned to face them.

"Guys," he'd say in mind shock. "I didn't expect you to be here so fast."

"Two hours isn't that fast," Yang would retort, setting down her bags next to the small pile of lumber. "And we tried to call your scroll multiple times, you just weren't picking up."

"You were calling me?" The Faunus raised an eyebrow and dug into his pocket to look at his scroll. He saw multiple missed calls from everyone except Penny, and his phone was clearly not muted. "...huh. Must've just not noticed. This island's clear, by the way. It's one of the smaller ones, and this digsite takes up most of it."

Penny blinked twice as the other three exchanged glances, unsure of what to say or do. It seemed like their job was done already before they even got there. Maybe their leader really was competent enough to get things done on his own.

"So- what did you two find?" Lance broke the silence, pointing to the Xiao-Rose sisters. The two exchanged glances with Yang pulling out her scroll to flick him a video file. He opened it and watched it through. It was distorted like the others and it showed the mines below the town on that island. And deep below was the pit that was systematically taken out. There was nothing there. Pure darkness filled that void of air, like a second of the entire underground simply disappeared. It seemed strange that there was just nothing in there despite just pitch black.

But then he looked closer, and realized his mistake. It was pitch black for a reason.

"Oh shit…"

It was ichor. Grimm ichor. There was a large pool of black ooze that the creatures of Grimm spawned from. It bubbled and sloshed abnormally, almost like waves were being generated in this thick oily sludge. There were even some boney extrusions penetrating from the surface, occasionally rising or sinking in and out of the ichor itself. There didn't seem to be any Grimm exiting it, but…that didn't mean there weren't ones forming in it.

"We thought that you'd want to see that, given you're our resident expert on Grimm activity." Yang commented. Her tone was rather unfitting of the reveal of such a large pool of ichor.

"Well, good news- it's not active. At least, not fully," Lance replied, rewinding over and over to watch the movements of the pool. It was moving by itself, but there didn't seem to be actual Grimm attempting to escape. "I'm more surprised there's a pool of ichor down there."

"Then what's the verdict?" the blonde said again. "We can't just leave it there, can we?"

"Unless you wanna throw a giant torch in there and watch as Grimm burn alive and make a rumble loud enough to cause a cave-in." Lance retorted, turning off his scroll and putting it back into his pocket. "It's not gonna be of any danger to us unless we wake it up or a huge amount of negative emotion comes to this area. The best we can do is report it as a hazard and we get actual professionals to come clean it up for us."

"That being said- we need to do more scouting. Go ahead and search the woods and coast. You guys will probably be hungry by the time you get back here, so set up temporarily." Lance replied as he reached behind him for his other dagger, only to find open air as he brought his digits to the palm. Said second dagger was already in its sheath. Weirdly enough, there seemed to be a few drops of some sort of fluid where the sharp end of the knife would have been. When he turned back around and got on his stride to get out of the clearing, everyone but Pyrrha had sectioned off.

"Lance?" She said to him, causing him to pause and adjust his stance to face her from his right side. The crimson-haired woman was holding the avian's jacket in her arms, offering it to him in a folded state. "I thought I'd give this back to you in better shape. You didn't pick it up this morning."

As he took his article back, he noticed the patches near the elbows and shoulders were better aligned and much less loose. The holes near the back to allow his wings to be freed up were also far less chaotic and more…whole. All Lance could do was give out a weak "thanks" as he put it on. Something that Pyrrha noticed as he moved into the sleeves was a gauze bandage that was around his left forearm. She hadn't seen him with it last night, nor was anyone else nearby to verify if he had it that morning.

The blood stain on it made it look fairly recent, too.

"...actually, why don't you come with me?" Lance would ask while he adjusted his wings to pop out of their respective back holes. "We've been splitting up into duos as of recently and I haven't been able to see your combat skills in person."

"That…sounds like a wonderful idea. Should we let the others know?"

"They'll find their way over there. We gotta set up camp for the night anyways- why not on that island?" He'd respond with further explanation as he began walking towards a nearby gravel path. "We'd be sneezing all night if we set up here."

Pyrrha would follow close behind, watching as her leader's wings would occasionally twitch or flick subtly as they relaxed. She was excited to see how Lance performed in the field herself- holding the same ideals as the avian Faunus in regards to seeing someone's battle prowess. Lance reminded her of Jaune in a way- they both seemed like the underdog who has exceptional skills hidden within. This brown-haired fighter was a shining example of what the blonde team leader could become: strong, confident, commanding, and yet charismatic deep down. Perhaps not as cold and calculating- Jaune's goofy nature was very enduring.

For Lance, seeing Pyrrha fight would give him confirmation if she was a formidable opponent. There was so much praise oriented towards her that it blocked out pretty much any hope of criticizing her. The students back at Beacon were all gasping when he had mentioned his discrediting of her performances outside of his own personal viewing. He did mean no offense- and none seemed to be taken- but that was how he worked and operated. But those kinds of people praised her like a goddess, made her look inhuman. Part of him understood that her presentation of it all would cause countless to commend her as a goddess, but shouldn't all huntsmen? Those people had to train for years to get into the major academies, then pass the exams within the academy to become a certified huntsman or huntress. To be this proficient so early on shouldn't even be a surprise. It was simply an early growth in that talent.

But all of that was personal. The mission- gotta stay with the mission.

The two came across the shore and found that wood seeped into the path as they walked. Upon the sandy beach was a wrecked wooden dock for boats to park at. The waters between this and the next island were surprisingly shallow, perhaps showing that these two were once part of a bigger island that eventually was taken by the ocean over many years. Given the dock, the waters were this way for long enough for the need of boats. To their left sat a small shack with racks holding up boats and oars, most of which looked old and dotted with barnacles. They still appeared to be in stable condition despite the years of abuse from the surrounding weather.

"...well, ain't that convenient for us," Lance would joke as he approached the stall area. He pulled out one of his daggers and started chipping off barnacles and crust around the hooks of the wooden slabs to help pry the boat itself off. Pyrrha would even let out a small laugh as she came with him, being handed the other dagger to help breakaway the build-up. Once they were able to jostle the boat enough, the daggers were given back to their owner and the wooden dinghy was lifted off the wooden dowels supporting it. It ended up falling out and landing upside down, resulting in an exchange of glances before laughing and flipping the boat over. Since Lance was the closest to the wood line, he pushed the boat with only his strength to very little effect. He was straining to even get it moving more than a foot a second. So Pyrrha stepped in beside him to help push, getting the boat onto the water where she climbed in. And of course, there were no paddles in the boat itself. The avian quickly ran back to the shack, grabbed two oars, and stomped through the water to climb into the boat. The redhead started to laugh again seeing him trudge through the muddy sand, earning a blushing yet smiling expression from Lance when he realized how stupid he looked. They invisibly talked to one another via their arm movements to figure out which side to row from first, getting themselves oriented to row on the right side of the boat first. And off they went, paddling away to the next island together.

Meanwhile, not even twenty meters away, Ruby skipped along the beach with the orange-haired girl following suit beside her. The two had split up from Yang to cover more ground and they found themselves traveling the sandy shores of the small island together. There wasn't much to be found besides rocks and sand, but they still were able to enjoy each other's company as they went along. The rolling waves of the ocean and the short breeze made for a nice backdropping sound to their steps and hums they took with each step. Their hums were even becoming synchronized with one another despite it being a completely impromptu tune that only they knew and made up on the spot.

Nothing like two good friends on a stroll through some abandoned islands!

As they continued to walk, they came across a strange sight before them. The waters seemed to become far more shallow as they walked, the actual beach section thickening outward more. Penny had noticed it first but that was because she had the map memorized and knew most of the paths. Ruby, however, spotted this and hummed a quizzical note.

"Hey Penny, did you notice-"

"Yes I did," the redhead replied, cutting off Ruby part way through her sentence. "It appears we have reached the section of the island crossing that has less depth in its water. It was assumed this landmass was considered a part of the other landmass north-northwest of us many years ago. But due to any number of environmental changes, this waterway was carved into the environment." The elaboration Penny gave slowed the pace of their walk, taking in the beauty of the shallow waters. Further alone, they saw a shack with boats and oars stored along its wall. There was even a damaged wooden dock that had been grown over. There was even a boat missing on the rack, freshly cut barnacles sprinkling that area.

"Oooooh- seems like someone' got boating," Ruby would say aloud as she walked further ahead, getting a look at the partially sunken wooden port and the shack. There wasn't much to see besides gross wood and a crab scuttling by. Ruby would even wave to it as it wandered by. It was when she noticed the other shore and a boat pulled onto the sand did she put some pieces together. "Penny, there's a boat over there! That must mean Lance and Pyrrha have already made it to the next island!"

The cheery redhead would look towards that next island, staring directly at the boat stationed there. Her head snapped to the left to look at the shed, the top half twisting to meet the same direction followed by her legs. Ruby hopped back in horror, having never seen her friend move like that before. Penny's attention was now on where the boat rack was and analyzing the various chips made to it. After a moment of comprehension, she would finally give her response. "That would be a correct assumption, Ruby. The markings made along the wooden hooks indicate that a precise cut was made to loosen the connected biomass, thus allowing the transportation vehicle to be jostled from its spot and be moved to the water- indicated by the dent in the sand. "

Ruby did her best to follow along and comprehend what was being thrown at her, a rather dumbfounded look on her face. Her expression never faltered either, attempting to connect the "complicated" pieces together in her head as to make the proper assessment. The ravenette still came to the same conclusion that her teammates had gone ahead, despite her explanation skipping the details and just making the assessment normally. "...Penny? Has anyone told you how smart you are?"

The compliment made the redhead beam. "I have, numerous times! My father is very proud of how smart I am. Although, sometimes he says that I am too smart for my own good. Do you happen to know what that means?"

Ruby began to stammer for words as a means to explain the concept to her friend. "He- he just means that you're looking into certain things a little too closely! Some- sometimes things are better not knowing their true purpose or that there isn't a need to clarify them! Young people like us aren't meant to look into things so closely!"

"Hm, I see. Perhaps I will lower my investigative analysis range as to appear more-"

"No! Penny- you thinking so in-depth about stuff like that is what makes you unique. Those differences between you and me are what make you…you."

"...I suppose you are right. Even if I'm not a "real" real girl, I still have a presence."

"Exactly. You're special, just like all of us. And I'll make sure to remind you of that as many times as I need to.

"…OH! I just thought of something! Penny, take my bag!" Ruby's face had lit up in a bright and excited expression once more, seeing herself to take off her supply pack. She would run back towards the treeline before building up a sprint. Her semblance activated, allowing her to gain speed much quicker as rose petals scattered everywhere. And as her mass of red swirls and petals moved forward, she was gliding just above the water and sometimes even grazing the surface. A matter of seconds had passed and Ruby was already on the next island, her semblance having carried her over the entirety of the water. And she was completely dry as well!

From far away, all Penny could see was her friend excitedly bouncing and hearing faint cries of excitement and successful accomplishment. The redhead kept both bags in her arms as her Floating Array unfolded from her personal backpack, the rockets in her shoes lifting her off the ground as she flew over to meet with her friend. She got close enough to hear Ruby's yells, especially so when the younger girl started shouting towards Penny.

"DID YOU SEE THAT?!" the ravenette exclaimed as her friend landed.

"That was an incredible use of your semblance!" Penny would reply back, embracing Ruby with a very tight grip. You had amassed enough speed to move yourself along the surface of the water without sinking!

"I KNOW! IT'S AWESOME!" the dark-haired girl squeaked out despite her torso being squeezed tightly. She was still super happy to see her semblance truly having more uses, especially when using it from zero velocity took a lot of energy out of her. But now that she knew that her super power could be improved by simply running prior to activation, Ruby knew there was more to her!

Penny would suddenly disengage the hug as she looked onward towards the main island. Ruby had fallen onto the sand with a groan before standing up and looking in the same direction. "Penny?" And that was when she could barely see it. There was a motorized boat moving from the shores of the main island to a further island. With people and supplies supposedly on it. Ruby couldn't tell who or what was on the boat, but it did tell you one thing: another group of people were on this island. And none of them were informed of it.

"...Penny?" Ruby would ask, a more serious tone coming through her words.

"Yes, friend Ruby?"

"…we're going on a stealth mission."