Team GALE

by Universal lizard

Four girls, from four very different lives. Alone, they are skilled in their own rights. But together, they become something stronger and better than any of them could ever be on their own; they become a Team, as unstoppable as GALE winds themselves. These are their stories.

7. Vol 1: Down into the Mountain

-And here I am again, with the first part of my very own Haven Academy team test. I wracked my brain for many days and weeks on this, trying my best to make it as different from Beacon's from the show, and Vacuo's from the book, while at the same time trying to keep it in the spirit of the series as a whole. Not much more I can think of to say on this; It's just really late at the moment I upload this. But anyway- please read and enjoy!-

---

The platforms the students once stood upon was broken instantly. Two halves split apart from beneath their feet to open up darkness below them. As such, everyone of them fell straight down, a litany of screams, shouts, and yelps of surprise filling the air.

The fellow students around Gail fell straight down in a blur and rush of colors. Her heart felt like it would beat its way out her throat! She was not expecting to be suddenly dropping down, at all!

In a flash, her wings deployed, and she maintained her hovering position. She could hear the distant screams of everyone, now far below her. She looked down, eyes widened, but she couldn't see them anymore.

"Gods... what was that?!" she managed.

"Impressive, Miss Nacht," Gail could hear Professor Celsius' voice above her. She looked up to find he standing at the edge of this now pit, through sets of bars now running horizontally in place where the platforms once were. He looked down upon her with his same neutral expression, save for a small tug at one corner of his mouth.

"Impressive?! What was that?!" she demanded, "We're not going to the tunnel; we're going straight underground!"

"Not necessarily," Celsius said, "This is merely a 'different pathway' you'll be taking. Those tunnels you have- or, 'would've' been dropped into feed directly into the mountain itself. You'll be entering its deeper caverns, which from there you will have to make your way up." The entire time Gail listened to the man speak, her heart continued to pound. Her breathing was thankfully starting to slow down from how erratic it was before. Surprises like that she could very well do without!

"B-but... why hadn't you simply told us that?!" she asked.

"You're learning of it now, aren't you?" Celsius shrugged, "And besides, an important lesson a huntsman or huntress must learn is to expect the unexpected, as well as adapt to all situations. You've just now demonstrated you are capable..." He stopped himself to look down at his wrist, "I need remind you that you still have a test to complete, Miss Nacht. You'd best be on your way, if you are to catch up with the others..."

Gail gave a deep sigh, or as deep as she could that her artificial lungs would allow. There was certainly no messing around when it came to this test! But, this is why she came here! There would be no room for errors from here on out! Now airborne, she placed her aviator goggles in place over her eyes. She then twisted herself so that she was facing downward to gaze into the abyss of darkness beneath her. It was just too dark to see, so she pulled forth her Cadenza hilt and activated its blade. The glow of the weapon illuminated the dark of walls around her, and a little of what lie beneath.

"Not too much light, but it should be enough; thank you Cadenza," she said to her weapon, "Alright, here I go...!" And with that, holding Cadenza before her like a light torch, she propelled herself down into the black and after her fellow test-takers.

---

Arslan felt the air rush past her as she moved. She had to admit she was certainly caught off guard from that trap-door suddenly opening beneath her. Her excitement rush only intensified as she was dropped down into the dark that lie beneath her. Where exactly were these... underground tunnels leading to?

The darkness was briefly broken by patches of light, which was coming from a few scattered clusters of Dust crystals! So Mount Everett was a source of Dust? Thanks to the light she was now granted, she could now see a slight curve in the descent so that the the tunnel she fell through was now at a bit of an incline. This allowed her to run and skid her way down along the slant in the tunnel wall, as well as see where exactly she was going now.

The shouts of her fellow test takers could no longer be heard, or at least, not as greatly as before. Perhaps they were all separated from her along the descent. As of now, only a smaller number of voices could be heard, and from the sounds of it were having varying degrees of success in their own falls. Arslan pushed those thoughts from her head; she needed to focus on her own fall that was happening right now!

She could hear the peculiar sound of skidding to the side of her. Turning her head quickly, she caught the familiar sight of that one yellow-robed student. The one who sounded like he had a good head on his shoulders. Unfortunately, his exact name seemed to have escaped her in that moment... Well still, from the way he was skidding down the incline of the tunnel wall, keeping up in good strides with her own running, she could see he was definitely no slouch!

He skidded close enough to her and finally glanced up to acknowledge her.

"Miss Altan? Fancy seeing you here!" he called out. In the midst of both of their rush, they were both able to keep their current descending pathways without interruption.

"I suppose I could use company, even in these such circumstances!" Arslan called out in reply. She looked back and straight down at where they were heading, "Just how much further is there to go...?" There were also breaks in the straight fall between them in the form of massive rocks and bumps in the smooth of the wall, which forced them to alternate in between running and jumping upon them to avoid tripping. Their flips were perfectly formed and their landings were perfectly stuck into skidding downward again.

"This mountain used to be mined for Dust crystals in abundance...!" Bolin called out, "Which means there should be a larger chamber for-" As he spoke, a figurative light suddenly appeared at the end of their tunnel.

Arslan jumped out from the hole of the tunnel she and Bolin had fell through. She flipped through the air, her composure regaining as she held her flipping form. When she stretched herself back out, she could now see clearly where she was. This chamber was definitely small, but a definite sign nonetheless that the descent itself was finally at an end. The entire room was illuminated with a dull, multi-colored glow of nearby Dust crystals, located both on the ground and sticking out of walls. She quickly looked out for what could aid her in keeping her from crashing hard into the ground. Her help came in the form of a nearby tree root, sticking out from the upper section of the side wall. From the angle it jutted out, latching onto it should be easy enough...

She let fly her kunai, with the rope attached to it. The metallic weapon flew outward, and looped clear and around one of the wooden roots. Arslan tugged hard on the rope with both hands, and she felt the satisfying resistance that she knew would keep her from falling. Holding on tight, she swung clear across the expanse of the chamber's upper section. Reaching the end of the arc, she twitched hard on the rope to dislodge the kunai. A silent bid of thanks was made for the practical use this rather unoriginal weapon of hers served. Once it all was loosed, she flipped again in the air, pulling herself out to land her feet flat against the opposing wall. She then pushed off, hands held out to hand-stand upon the ground below, and flipped herself a final time back on to her feet. After all of that, she had come to a full stop from any sort of movement, and was allowed to catch her breath.

She quickly clapped both her hands and the front of her body from any lingering dust. The dry dust that she likely picked up from these cavern walls of course. Once that was done, she allowed herself to take in the precise lay of the cavern she stood within. It was actually not that much wider than the tunnel she had just been tossed down; probably three times the size of that one. The entire room was decently lit from more scattered batches of Dust crystals that broke through the walls and burst from the floors. There were not that many exits nor entrances, aside from the improptu tunnels that could be seen along walls that were similar to the one she herself had just emerged from.

"Finally, touched down..." the other one's voice could be heard behind her. She turned to see the yellow-robed boy approach her, a staff held in his hand. From up close she could now see clearer details about him, such as his slight mess of brown hair on his head, and the slightly stern expression on his face. If she were honest, that face was not that different from her own that she was told she makes.

"Indeed we have, Mr...?" Arslan said, in an attempt to initiate introductions.

"Bolin Hori," the boy replied.

"Ah yes, of course," Arslan said.

"Surely you've heard of me...?" His next question left her with a raised eyebrow, followed by a short shake of the head.

"No, I can't say that I have..."

"Of the Hori clan? Perhaps you've heard of my father, Yishu Hori?" Bolin pressed, "He was a great huntsman in his day, taught me everything he knew."

"Um, sorry, but none of that is sounding the slightest familiar..." the girl said. She shook her head hard this time, even as she made to turn around, "Well anyway, we have a test to perform here, so we'd best get on with this for now."

"Right! Yes, absolutely..." Bolin said, footsteps heard behind her telling her that he was rushing to catch up with her, "This test; hm... We're to collect some 'stone pieces', as they were called? Where would they be held...?" The two of them walked in relative close distance with each other as they navigated across the small chamber they stood in. Their footsteps created reverberating echoes across the entire expanse.

"What Professor Celsius told us: that these pieces are used to power control terminals to signal air-ships for retrieval," Arslan pondered as they walked, "He mentioned that they were 'additives', as in they weren't part of the mountain already."

"Yes?"

"And he mentioned that they were added on for the sole purpose of this test and its parameters."

"I'm not sure I follow..." Bolin said, before quickly realizing something, "I mean- following in what you're saying..."

"What I mean is," Arslan looked over her shoulder at her counter-part, "How likely should it be that something not 'of this mountain' should be found so deep within it, despite it being added on so recently?"

"Huh?" Bolin tilted his own head this time, "So what, you're saying that... these pieces would be more likely to be found... much closer to Mount Everett's exterior?" Arslan nodded.

"It's a hypothesis to be sure, but it still seems likely to me..." Bolin nodded with a smile of is own.

"Regardless, that is sound reasoning, as well as our best lead we have at the moment," Bolin said, "And on top of all that, our objective is to head outside to where these panels are now anyway, which means our course should be clear in itself."

"That was my thought as well," Arslan said, pressing further on across the chamber until they reached a few sets of tunnels not unlike the one that they had come from, "I also feel that... We should take this one here," she pointed to the right most tunnel on the wall, "We were dropped down a considerable distance, which means we'll need to travel up as best we can."

"Excellent, I'll follow you then," Bolin said. The two of them made their way closer to and through said tunnel entrance's incline.

---

"YAAAH-HOOOOOO!" Reese Chloris exclaimed. The air rushed past her as she sailed down, and she wore a goofy grin across her face the entire time. That may have been a wicked, even surprising trick that Professor 'what's-his-face' had pulled just now, but seems like he made up for it with this awesome whole-pipe shooting downwards! In fact, this complete excitement rush was quickly making up for that 'other' reason that tried to get her down.

She was faintly aware of the other students she was with that were dropped down here at the same time she was. A few of them dropped down faster than others; the slower ones probably having some way of slowing themselves, while the faster ones she'd be looking to challenge to race one day. In fact, that one girl stood out completely- Angelita Amarillo. So that's what that big shell on her back was: she could roll herself into an actual ball? That's who she should be racing against right now!

Sadly she had lost sight of her, as well as the other students. Somewhere along the way they must have taken different routes on the way down than she had, leaving her to hover down by herself. Oh well, it was no biggie; she was used to being by herself.

However, it seemed she might not be on her lonesome for long. In the lit up tunnel that she was hovering down through, she caught sight of someone else. This person was descending down the same tunnel very much gracelessly compared to her. That is to say, he was just straight rolling down and screaming like a girl! Plus the guy actually had pink hair on his head!

Reese carefully steered McFly towards him as he tumbled. There came a point during his slide where he managed to maintain some semblance of control of himself. He was now skidding straight down the slope, his yelping dying down just a little bit.

"Yo! You okay there?!" Reese called out in a joking manner. The boy looked to his side at her, eyes widened with comical surprise.

"Oh my- help me! I'm sliding too fast!" he called out. In spite of his protests, Reese had to stifle a giggle; the way he was crying out was just so funny sounding to her!

"Hey man, if it helps you any: I'm going the same place you're going!" Reese said. Her comment caused him to turn his gaze back in front of him, where his eyes immediately widened again. There was an exit to this tunnel they were sliding through! Were they dying and about to come out to a light at the end of this tunnel? He was sure thinking that was going to happen to him!

The two of them finally slid out the hole and spilled out. There was a moment of air-time, which Reese did not fail to make use of; a couple of tricks on McFly real quick, like her 'Reese-copter', and she was happy again! She and McFly finally landed on the ground, or rather, McFly 'kept' her from landing on the ground, as she then came to a little spinning halt.

"Whoo! What a rush!" Reese exclaimed, further enjoying the echo her voice just produced. Her response was the sound of moaning. Looking around, she could see the familiar feet of the boy she was just with, sticking out of a... mining cart?

She floated on over close to the cart in question, and gave it a couple of taps with her knuckles.

"Hello? Anyboy home?" she called out. The moaning drew in sharply, then stopped, followed by the feet pulling themselves in. Reese hopped off McFly and on the ground as she stepped back to get a better look. Slowly, the boy's head popped out from inside the mining cart, eyes looking fairly dazed.

"Urgh... what, what happened...?" he lazily said. This only caused Reese to stifle yet another giggle from within her mouth.

"I'll tell you what happened! Pretty sure you just got spat out through that hole in the wall and landed straight into this cart!" Reese exclaimed. The boy shook his head to clear his senses. It was then that he got a better look at the girl laughing at his expense.

"Man, this is not how I was expecting this test to go," he said, trying to readjust himself within the cart, "Please tell me nobody saw me end up here?"

"Nope, don't think so!" Reese said, earning a sigh of relief from the boy, "Well... maybe just one..." His eyes widened in horror again, "Me!" Her quirky responses were met with an exasperated groan from the boy.

"Seriously! This is embarrassing! You shouldn't..." he started, but hesitated as he seemed to realize something, "Wait, who are you again?"

"I'm Reese, don't you remember? And you?"

"Nadir... Shiko," Nadir said as he reshifted one of his legs inside the cart, "And soon to be ace Huntsman!"

"Well, great start so far..." Reese remarked with a smirk. Nadir returned her smirk with a look of his own. Honestly, that pink hair on top of his dark-skinned head made him look so silly! Was that some weird style he was going for?

Nadir's look was broken as something happened. The cart he was in budged in a direction, just ever so slightly. This got Reese's attention as well, who also happened to look down at the cart's wheels; there were tracks! The cart was about to start rolling along them! Looking down this line of tracks, there was quite an incline they led into; straight into another Dust illuminated tunnel!

"Huh? Oh no, I felt that...!" Nadir said. There was no denying now that the cart was beginning to pick up speed as it started its descent, with the boy still inside of it, "Well don't just stand there, Reese! Do something!"

"What the heck am I supposed to do?!" Reese countered, "Just hop yourself out of there!" By now cart was on a full-course straight down the track, gradually picking up more and more speed. The quick motion forced Nadir's back to the cart's inner wall, back in a sort of sitting position. Reese was also forced to jump back onto McFly and hover in after him to keep up.

"Oh boy, I'm moving too fast...!" Nadir called out. The cart's wheels squeaked audibly as they turned, their sound echoing all throughout the narrow tunnels. Air rushed by and around both of their heads, Reese's hoodie even being blown off in the process. There'd be time to put it back up later; for now, impromptu race must come first!

In spite of the somewhat tense situation that was unfolding before the both of them, Reese tried and failed to stop herself from smiling at the absurdity of this situation. After all, she and her McFly were racing against another kid in a mining cart! If this was not the most randomest thing she'd ever had happen to her in all her years, she didn't know what was!

Before the both of them, the tracks curved ever so slightly left and right. They were fortunate to know this from the illumination of the Dust crystal clusters that lit the pathway. After all, it was definitely not safe to race anyone in the dark!

"You seriously can't just jump out of there?" Reese called out, "What have you got to lose? Your dignity?"

"This is serious too, Reese! There's got to be a way to at least slow this thing down!" Nadir exclaimed. Reese squinted her eyes as she looked forward and in front of them.

"What the...?" as she suddenly noticed something. Nadir caught the tone in her voice and looked forward as well. She could hear a gasp from him as he must have seen what she saw: the tracks before them branched in two ways: an intact right path, or a destroyed left path. The latter was painfully indicated by the tracks being bent and reshaped very obscenely. From the way the tracks had been bent, some kind of rocks must have fallen from above and smashed them downward, "The tracks! They split off! Reese, can you see which way they're gonna take me?!"

"What wha-?" Reese said. She bent a foot forward to accelerate herself just in front of the pink-haired boy and get a better view. She caught a very quick glimpse of the track's switch function-thingie, with that big crank off to the side that was facing towards them. What did that mean again? "Um, I think they're going to the left...?"

"Gah! Quick! Pull that lever forward!" Nadir exclaimed again. A pointing finger of his hand indicated to the lever, and Reese was already on it. She quickly zoomed in, took hold of the lever, and yanked it back to- oh wait, it wasn't budging.

"What? Come on..." She pulled harder, nothing. She tugged harder, even using McFly to put in a little more 'McPull'! Still nothing! Was this thing stuck or something?! "Hey! This thing ain't turning!"

"I got this...!" Nadir's voice called out as he was already set to pass her by. He was standing straight up now, with some weapon in his hand and poised to strike. Was he going to give her a drive-by haircut!?

She ducked her head down as low as she could, and even in spite of that, she felt the motion of the lever finally giving away. The sudden jolting shift in motion almost caused her to fall straight off of McFly even as she resumed her hovering path, but she was able to reorient herself. Looking back up, she could also see that what they did must have worked, as Nadir was 'not' on a straight one-way course for death! The mining cart was now bound for the right side path, but to where exactly...?

The answer came in the form of the cart suddenly picking up speed as it was bound for another downward incline. Reese shrugged her shoulders with a smile; onwards and downwards. Both she and Nadir sailed straight down, his scream of terror and her laugh of excitement filling the air.

---

"Um, okay..." Oriel Baltimore spoke. That drop had taken her completely by surprise, as well as had her falling for a good half a minute at least. She positively hated falling! Falling, and heights! Even worse not only had she been 'dropped', but also into a sort of dark abyss as well! It was like so many nightmare inducing things all at once! She could feel her stomach positively lurching the entire experience; it was all she could do then to keep her breakfast from leaving the way it had went in. Was this really a necessary step in the Haven Academy initial testing to surprise new candidates like this?! They were supposed to be learning to be huntresses, not being scared half to death!

Eventually, after a lengthy fall that thankfully she had managed to slide down through to keep from damaging herself, she reached the bottom. Or at least, a point where she was no longer falling straight down uncontrollably. There was no one around however, so she was forced to speak to no one but herself. After picking herself up and dusting herself off, she finally allowed to get a good hard look at where exactly she had ended up.

Some kind of really narrow tunnel, really dark and scary. Why did it have to be so scary like this? She hated dark places! Well, thankfully those Dust clusters were lighting the place up a little, but there could've been a lot more of them. On instinct, her hands held both her twin karambits 'Talons', as well as anxiously.

"Uh, hello...?" she cautiously called out. Her small, timid voice could be heard bouncing off of the walls. Nothing that greeted her gave her any comfort; there were no familiar sounds of her fellow test takers to be heard anywhere. During her descent she'd managed to catch glimpses of some of them passing her by, like Arslan, Liz, and Eleanor. All of them were descending down the drop in their own various ways as well. She'd been hoping that she could meet up with them during or even after she'd managed to reached the bottom. However, instead of meeting up with any of them, much less hearing their voices, all she could hear were tiny creaking sounds, chittering and clicking. Not the sort of noises that a normal person would ever make. They at least did sound like they were distant, but that did not give her any relieving comfort. Especially when the sounds themselves were also echoed to sound more resounding than they were.

"Th-this is crazy..." Oriel said, taking slow steps forward. The dimly illuminated path before her was her only option for travel at this point. Behind her was out of the question, as the end of the tunnel had dropped her straight down; no back-tracking that way, "G-gotta find my way outta here..."

With that, she proceeded along the path lay out before her. Her Talons tightly gripped in her hands, at the ready. She nervously glanced all around as she walked. These Dust crystal clusters that jutted out from the walls gave off a decent glow to them. All were of varying colors as well, no doubt to signify the type of elements that they concealed within them. However, as beautiful as they appeared to be, Oriel still new better. These were raw, un-processed Dust crystals, not like those produced by the SDC. Those were all manufactured and distributed to be used on one's weapons for ammunition and the like. These on the other hand, they hadn't been filtered, treated, or nothing. One wrong move involving them could trigger explosions, or worse! It was best to avoid them where ever she could. She'd been well acquainted with Dust-related accidents in her own life already...

A few more walked feet and curses at the darkness later, and the tunnel began to widen a little. On the one hand, Oriel didn't feel as anxious due to claustrophobia lifting a little. On the other hand, there was also potential trouble that could be lurking within such wider open spaces. And with fewer Dust crystals that could be seen around to dispel the darkness, the fear did not let up completely-

A tiny rumble felt through the ground and Oriel practically froze in place. She dared not to move, in fear that what she thought she felt was exactly a phantom feeling. A handful of seconds passed, the only sound to be heard through her ears was the sound of her own heartbeat and the shallow breaths she took. Her eyes darted all around, desperate to see... something! Anything that could have made a sound! But there was nothing...

The rumble was felt again! Accidentally surprising her, this strange noise caused her to shift on her feet a couple of times. This was just crazy! What was out there?!

A different sound suddenly was heard, that could only be described as something sharp cutting against rock. Oriel's eyes shot down to where she could tell for certain the noise was coming from. A few feet away from her own position, the ground nearby suddenly broke apart in a small section. Something then burst forth from it, chittering and chattering a scary, inhuman sound! From the white-carapace outlining a black body with numerous legs, there was no mistaking this thing for anything else: a Grimm!

"Gaaahhh!" Oriel yelped in complete surprise. She was caught completely off guard and in turn had caused her to stumble backwards and fall to the ground. Before her, the Centinel emerged more of its body from its hole to stretch forth and seemingly straight towards her!

Instinct took over, and Oriel pulled her two Talons together. The karambit blades were then joined together at their handle sections, the blades bent inwards towards each other by ninety degrees, and an elastic materialized at the blades' tips. Her Talons' slingshot version was formed.

"Oh, come on, come on...!" the girl cried to herself, practically fumbling with the Dust projectile to fit into the slingshot's rope. Once it was in place, she quickly tried to pull back and take aim. But, where was a good spot to hit it at?! The white part? Or the black part? It all looked the same to her! And the Centinel was drawing closer to her!

Eyes clenched shut for a brief moment as she let forth the Dust shot. When she opened her eyes, she saw that her small projectile had glanced off of the side of the creature's head, a chittering of irritation accompanying it. There was brief window in which the approach towards it was halted, and Oriel felt a small sense of pride in what she just now was able to do!

Her relief was short-lived however, as the Centinel had regained its senses and was back to launching itself towards her again!

"Oh no; come on, gotta get another one ready-!" Oriel reached to her side to retrieve another Dust projectile. In the forefront of her mind, she had a feeling it wouldn't be fast enough. The Centinel was nearly upon her, and would definitely have her before she ever managed to get another shot loaded up-

"HYYAAAAHHHH!" A completely different sound rang out through the tunnel. This was a joined with the Centinel in question suddenly being thrust downward to the ground. Something had practically fallen on top of it, and had effectively pinned it in place! No wait, not something...

Someone!

Oriel watched with widened eyes as one of the other students she had seen practically stomped upon the Centinel completely! His feet were smaller in length to the creature's individual back carapaces, but that was backed up with the sheer weight of muscle the boy appeared to have on him. It was clear that the boy was having no trouble pinning the Grimm down, no matter how much its legs scratched into the ground vainly to escape.

The face she saw upon him was a stern one, mixed with a hint of smug satisfaction. In his right hand, he hefted a really big dagger; or was that some kind of short sword? Whatever it was, it was nearly the entire length of his entire forearm! That meant it was practically a quarter in length next to her as well! He twisted the blade so that it was facing down in his fist, held it straight up and level with his head, and brought it down hard, embedding the point deep into the top of the Centinel's head. The effect was quick and immediate; the chittering stopped completely, and from the initial stab the body began to disintegrate into black and white particles, straight from beneath his own feet until there was nothing left.

The Grimm was gone, and the boy slowly turned to regard Oriel, seemingly having noticed her for the first time just now.

"W-wow..." she said, then quickly shook her head, "Er, I mean- Th-thank you!"

"Hmph," the boy said. He held his hand out to her. Slowly she took the hand, and by comparison he quickly pulled her back to her feet.

"Seriously, I-I was not expecting... that," Oriel said, indicating to where the Centinel once was, "I mean, P-Professor Celsius did say there'd be Grimm here, but it's not like he told us what 'kind' of Grimm to watch out for. You know what I-" As she had been talking, she glanced back up to him, only to lay eyes upon his retreating form, "Huh? Hey! Where are you going?!"

"Where do you think? To find these damn pieces..." he said without turning around. With a renewed sense of vigor, Oriel quickly closed the space between them to catch up with him.

"B-but wait! Hold on, I mean, wouldn't it be better if we were to, you know? Stick together?" she suggested. To her credit he did slow down just a little bit.

"I don't need others holding me back," he spoke at first, then turned an eye back to glance over his shoulder at her, "And I really don't feel like babysitting anyone else."

"Wh-wha- babysitting?!" Oriel exclaimed, absolutely flabbergasted, "I do NOT need any babysitting, alright?! Th-that Grimm just surprised me is all! I would've had it completely! And besides, this is a test for team-building, isn't it? So, wouldn't that mean sticking together with whomever we can...?" To her credit, the boy in front of her had stopped his walk away from her completely. Had what she said gotten through to him? His head was tilted down to the side, just at an angle where she couldn't see his face exactly, but could infer that he was thinking. His head suddenly shook, followed by a quick scoff.

"Try and keep up then..." he said, proceeding back with his march forward.

"Yes! Perfect!" Oriel exclaimed, though took a moment to re-compose herself, "So, m-my name's Oriel. Did I ever tell that? I don't think I did. But, I don't think you ever told-"

"Name's Victor," the boy before her, 'Victor', told her simply, all without breaking his stride.

"Ah! Okay, good..." Oriel said. She chose this moment to quicken her pace so that she was more or less walking close to alongside him. The narrow tunnel they both traversed through had little in the way of illumination from many Dust clusters as seen before. Yet despite that, Victor continued to walk forward as if the absence of light wasn't hindering him in the slightest.

"B-but wait; how do you know where you're going? It's almost pitch black in here!" she questioned.

"I'm a faunus," he said. He gave no other open movements aside from a quick twitch of one of his shoulders. Oriel took notice of this, as well as said shoulder having some strange, textural patches on the skin itself. It looked rather rough, coarse, and tough. Very quickly, it all made sense to her! Nearly all faunus had this uncanny ability to see in the dark!

"Oh! Um, s-sorry by the way! You know, f-for not not knowing right away that you were a..." Oriel trailed off as she noticed that Victor still was walking onward, hardly even turning his head to acknowledge her, "Ah, nevermind..."

On top of scared, embarrassed was not what she needed to be either...

---

"Alright, where to go now...?" Liz pondered to herself. At this point it was all she could do; she had dropped down to the eventual bottom, but had ended up by herself. No one else was around her in these dark tunnels, as far as she could see.

Of course, her preferred options were still not quite to her liking; the majority of her fellow test takers were humans, and the only other faunus seemed to go out of his way to prove he was a jerk to everyone! And seemingly what was worse, this test was to determine what students were placed onto what teams! None of this sounded pleasing to her, especially since the odds of her having human teammates were incredibly high.

"But maybe... what if I could be the team leader?" she spoke aloud. The notion caused her to smile a little; humans having to listen and take orders from a faunus? Wouldn't that be a sight to see? "Alright then, just gotta get through this test... maybe even see who I end up finding down here..."

She walked through the walkways that were these caverns. They started in small, yet ever so gradually increased in width the more she walked through. She was also able to tell this fact from how accurately she could see in the dark. Let this place be dark all it wants; it won't stop her!

The steps she took could be heard with an accompanying echo that could be heard down a ways. That was one thing that did make her nervous; she could see well in the dark, but that didn't change the fact that she had no clue what could be down here as well. That Professor Celsius said they'd be encountering Grimm, but he didn't say exactly 'what' kind. Would they be beowolves?

"Nah, not beowolves..." she said to herself softly, "They'd usually stick to the upper-ground and in the forests, wouldn't they? But then, what other kind of Grimm would be down-"

In an instant, Liz tensed up. She had heard something; a shuffle of rocks? Maybe she'd be getting an answer to what kind so soon and already. She quickly silenced herself and focused her hearing. But her ears didn't pick up anything; that is, besides the sound of her own heartbeat. She felt herself relaxing her tensed up body ever so slightly. What was that though? It definitely sounded like rocks, like the sound that some made when they were kicked by a foot or something-

There! There it was again! The sound of small rocks being kicked, or shuffled even! Something was definitely near... a little too near really...

Liz was nearing upon a sharp turn in this tunnel she was walking, not knowing at all what was on the other side. One thing was for certain though: that noise had definitely come from around that corner. Could it be a Grimm? It could definitely be a Grimm that walked on feet, what with the way the shuffling rocks indicated. Liz was nervous, but ready all the same.

"Alright you..." she whispered to herself. She lifted her arms up, with the claws on her Kaginawa Tsume snapping open. It'd be quick- pop herself around the corner and let loose into whatever was there! As quickly and deftly as she could, she advanced until her back was laid up into the wall, while still facing towards the corner. Her heartbeat thumped through her ears as she gingerly moved forward. She was certain the steps she took weren't loud, or at least as quiet as she was able to control them.

'Not much further now...' she thought, 'Just a few more steps...' She listened in closely for any other sort of sounds at all. Strangely, the shuffling of rocks was gone now. Nothing seemed to be heard in the air at the moment, save for something rather small... It almost sounded like... breathing...?

She was at the corner now; whatever was around it was next to greet her. Well she'd be greeting it as well via well-placed rounds from her Kaginawa Tsume! She held each one up and close to her at the ready. Her breathing was shallow yet just quiet, which she then took a quick moment to control. A deep inhale of breath, followed by a silent exhale...

Liz leapt from around the corner with her weapons aimed straight forward to shoot at the-

"Huh?!"

"What?!"

Two voices filled the air in that single moment. The reason for it was that what Liz turned around to see was not any Grimm, but rather somebody else! A human! Worse still, this human just happened to be the last one that she wanted to meet, especially down in some Dust mine mountain!

Gail Nacht!

"You?!" The two voices rang out at the exact same time, calling out the exact same exclamation.

The human girl held something in her own hand; what looked to be a blade of some kind, yet it was glowing. It glowed a small, gentle color of dull white, almost gray. The tip of this weapon was pointed forward and poised to strike forward at whatever was around this corner as well.

In an instant, the two girls were able to study the others' faces. At first, hardened and determined faces with squinted eyes met those of their counterpart, then quickly shifted to complete shock and surprise upon realization. Of all people that could've met up with down here, it had to be 'her'?!

"What are you doing here?!" Liz questioned, slightly lowering her arms.

"I could ask you the same thing," Gail lowered her weapon held arm as well, "We all got separated from that drop, and you're the first person I find."

"Hmph, figures..." Liz spoke a little harshly while lowering her arms. Her tone seemed to have been noticed by Gail, who winced slightly. She paused for a moment before sighing, then speaking up again.

"Alright listen... If there's any chance for me- er well, 'either' of us to complete this test, much less even get out of here... It's probably best if we start off on better footing." Her words made Liz's earlier look of surprise return in full. She also narrowed her eyes a little in scrutiny as well.

"Better footing? Just what are you trying to say, human?" she asked.

"I mean, that you and I haven't been exactly 'getting along' since we've seen each other..." Gail swung her free hand back and forth between them to demonstrate the indication of the two, "It's a grand understatement."

"Oh, you mean you're admitting you've been wrong this whole time? About us faunus?" Liz pressured.

"That's not what I'm-!" Gail started, but quickly caught herself. Liz watched as she paused and took another breath to compose herself, "What I'm suggesting is that we try... starting over. At least try to establish a working, even cordial relationship."

"A cordial relationship?" Liz said, "I'd believe that when I see it..." She looked away from Gail and towards the other darkened tunnel section that neither of them had come through. She could see it was a straight pathway with a sharp upward ascent to the left, roughly ten yards away, "Well anyway, looks like that way's the only way to go; an upward climb to the left at the end of this path here."

"Huh?" Gail turned to look at where Liz had just indicated. A look of genuine confusion cropped up on her face, which Liz just barely caught herself before proceeding to walk in that direction. In her ears she heard the sound of footsteps walking quickly behind her, "W-wait! How can you tell? It's pitch black through this tunnel, too dark to see! And Cadenza can only light up a little bit of the way-"

"Duh? I'm a faunus?" Liz turned her head to meet Gail's face. Her own hand pointed in the direction of her own eyes, "We can see in the dark, remember?"

"Oh... well, right; I gathered that..." Gail said. It felt like she would follow it up with something, but she held her tongue. As such, the two girls moved forward along the darkened tunnel passageway. Liz maintained a few steps ahead of them, while Gail kept up the pace herself behind her. In her right hand she held her blade Cadenza, it's glowing blade illuminating the dark space of the tunnel for only a few feet around it with its dull white light.

The two finally made it to the end of the stretch of the tunnel and where it turned to the left. True to what Liz had seen, the route then sharply inclined upwards, a dusty rock slope with little in the way of handholds.

"Alright, looks like you weren't wrong," Gail said, "About which way to go I mean. And look! There's a light up there!" Both girls looked up to where Gail pointed. Sure enough, a small glow of red and yellow in their sights.

"There's light up there," Liz said, "But, what could that light be from?"

"Well, Professor Celsius said Mount Everett was used for mining Dust crystals, didn't he?" Gail suggested, "Even more clusters of Dust crystals? That'd be my guess."

"Well anyway, let's get up there..." Liz shrugged. She walked up to the incline's start and leaned in, her Kaginawa Tsume's claws digging into the ground in front of her. There were no footholds, so she'd have to step carefully-

"Gah-!" she suddenly exclaimed as one of her weapons slipped out, causing her to slide back down to the bottom. That sudden drop took her by surprise, yet again today. She dusted herself off and tried again. This time she angled her fists so that they themselves pointed parallel with the incline itself, the claws digging straight forward as well. This strategy seemed to do her much better, as she felt the grip she held hold a little better as well. She in no time had advanced further than where she had slipped the first time. If she just maintained this current clawing method, she'd be climbing her way up and out in no time-

"Huh?" Out of the corner of her eye she noticed something. She watched as Gail suddenly appeared off ot the side, except, she wasn't grabbing on to anything! In fact, she wasn't climbing at all! "What the- You can fly?!"

Gail looked back down over her shoulder, conveniently just in time to watch as in Liz's sudden newfound surprise her grip slipped again. She let out another yelp as she yet again slipped down the incline. She tried as best as she could to dig her claws to stop herself from sliding any more, but all that ended up doing was slowing her descent, not stopping it. Eventually, she fell back to the bottom yet again.

Her face was no doubt flush with embarrassment; she couldn't dare to look up from the ground. No doubt that other girl would be there, laughing at her. She could hear nothing however, and she cautiously looked back up to the find the girl in question slowly descending in mid-air down to her position. The goggles that were once atop her head were now in place over her eyes. There was no laughter coming from her mouth, nor even a smile on her face. Why not? She had every reason to, didn't she?

Her confusion only grew when Gail reached out her empty hand towards her.

"Here, why don't you let me fly us up there?" she suggested. Liz swatted the hand away in annoyance.

"Bah, I don't need your help! I've got this!" she protested.

"Yeah, those first two times really showed that," Gail replied. This earned her a look from Liz, and the other girl sighed herself, "Look, I get that you don't like me, I get that. I'm not asking you to, but what I am hoping you'd do is accept a simple solution for this kind of problem? I can't see in the dark like you can, but ascending steepness like this is no problem for me. Even you could agree we could help each other out...?" With that, she held her hand out to Liz again. The lizard faunus girl turned away indignantly at first. How badly she wanted to deny this human's request, and yet, even though she'd never admit it aloud, this steep incline was giving her a little trouble.

She looked back at Gail again, seemingly for the first time really studying the girl's facial features. She had really dark blue hair that reached down to her neck, with curled bangs that framed her face. Her lips remained pursed, and through the darkened tint of the goggles' lenses her eyes stared at her in anticipation. There wasn't any of that previous hostility or bickering from earlier to be found on her face this time. Just what was this girl's game exactly?

Finally, against her better judgement, she reached a hand out and took Gail's open one.

"Alright, hold on...!" Gail's grip tightened a little, and Liz was glad it did. In a quick motion, a pair of wings suddenly burst out and into form from the pack on Gail's pack thing. The familiar hum of anti-grav Dust could be heard from the lower end of the pack, as well as a progressive glow of blue from the bottom end. The two of them suddenly rose upward through the air at alarming speed! Liz's eyes widened and she tried to supress the urge to cry out in surprise again. She could feel the cool air rush around her and whip her face. She could also feel her stomach lurch a little from this unfamiliar motion she was moving at. On instinct, she reached out with her other hand to grab hold of Gail's hand as well, "Argh-! Hey, be careful! You're throwing off my aerial balance!"

"I can't help it!" Liz called out, "This is crazy! I'm not one for, well, 'flying'!"

"And I'm not usually carrying things behind me in my hand!" Gail countered, "Just hold steady, we're almost there!" It was true, in between Liz holding on for dear life and Gail carrying the two of them, the literal light at the end of the tunnel grew larger and larger.

The darkness around the girls was finally broken as they finally emerged from the incline. Gail carried Liz straight out of the hole and carefully set her back down on the ground. Liz's feet touched down, with a bit of stumbling to accompany it. She had just been 'flying' through the air after all; it's a wonder she still had her own sense of balance!

Gail floated closer to the ground until her feet touched down completely. The hum from her pack then decreased as the wings collapsed back inside of it.

"There we are, I told you it'd be no problem," she claimed.

"Uh, y-yeah. I guess you did..." Liz said, trying to keep the shakiness out of her voice, "So, you really can fly?"

"Yep, I can fly," Gail indicated to her flight pack with a thumb from her empty hand, "It's pretty much handy since my legs are not fit for running or stuff like others can..."

"Oh, I see..." Liz said. Shaking her head, she looked around at where they now stood. They stood in yet another tunnel, yet it was much more decently lit, with Dust crystal clusters bursting out of the walls at various points. They gave a glow all around them that gave the two girls a decent scope of the size of the tunnel itself. This one was drastically bigger and wider than the one they were just now in.

Another notable thing was the ground itself. Aside from the ground appearing much more solid rock, there was also an iron train track running a straight course along the length of the tunnel. It trailed on as far as could be seen in either direction.

Gail held her Cadenza weapon out to allow even more illumination via its glow.

"Where are we now? Are these... mining tracks?" she said while inspecting the iron tracks.

"Must be; they must have used some cart to carry out Dust crystals to somewhere else..." Liz said.

"Hm... I bet if we followed them, they'll lead us to where the cart would off-load its contents, at a surface location!" Gail deduced.

"But... which way goes where?" Liz said, looking down one path way and then the other, "Both ways look the same, even as far as I can see."

"One of them's gotta be different, somehow!" Gail said, "One way really doesn't look the slightest bit different?"

"Like I said, it's all the-" Liz started to say, but stopped short. As she was looking down one direction, her eyes suddenly squinted, as if she were focusing on something, "Wait a minute... what... is that...?"

"What?" Gail asked, turning to the aforementioned direction her faunus counterpart was facing. She lifted Cadenza to light up the way, for all the illumination it could provide. She couldn't see terribly far, but it was at that point she could hear something. She could her... two things actually. They were distant sounds, with one sounding like the familiar sound of spinning wheels. The other sounded like... laughter...?

"Is... is someone there?" she asked, turning to Liz, "What's out there?"

"I... don't believe what I'm seeing..." Liz said, unconsciously taking a step back. The sounds grew ever louder, with both girls anxious at the notion that this could be Grimm. However, what broke through the darkness to greet them was most certainly not Grimm.

"YAAAAHHHHOOOO! Look out!" the image of a mint-green haired girl with a purple hoodie exclaimed. She was riding towards them fast on a hoverboard, the biggest grin of excitement plastered all across her face. That wasn't all; she was riding alongside a fast moving cart, with someone inside of it! It was a dark-skinned boy with a patch of pink atop his head! As opposed to the girl, his face was one of absolute horror, hands gripping the front edge of the cart he was sitting inside of.

"Whoa-!" Gail quickly as she could jumped back and away from the mine tracks, the cart and the hoverboarder just barely missing her.

Liz on the other hand fared a little differently. As the cart at rocketed past her, one of her Kaginawa Tsume must have been extended out enough so that its claw tip had been sticking out. The claw ended up catching on successfully, and Liz was met with the sudden jolt as she was lurched forward and straight off of her feet. The cart was carrying her along with it with the speed it was still maintaining!

"Gaaahhh-!" she cried out. Air rushed and whipped her face yet again as she was driven through it, this time however moving in a horizontal direction. As she tried to get her other arm to land a better grip on the cart that was carrying her along unwittingly, she tried to get a better visual look in front of her.

"Huh?" she heard from inside the cart. The sole occupant noticed her and turned around to look at her. He was that dark skinned boy, with a patch of pink hair atop his head, and sporting a yellow top, "Hey! Where did you come from?!"

"Man, talk about 'picking up chicks'!" the other girl on the hoverboard could be heard saying, followed by a laugh. With a groan, Liz finally gripped the cart's upper edges with both hands, and positioned her feet against the side. She was now in a sort of rock-climber's position, only her tail and the edges of her shirt left to flow freely against the flow.

"Ugh, finally!" she said, "Now what the heck is this?! What are you doing?!"

"Hey don't get mad at me! I don't know!" the boy waved his hands before him in his defense, "Just find a way to stop this thing! Or slow it down!"

"Reese?! What's going on?!" Gail's voice could suddenly be heard calling out, strangely from close by. Out of the corner of her eye, Liz could see that the dark-blue haired girl was already zooming through the air as fast as she could, the wings on her pack expanded once again. She flew level and alongside the mining cart, trying to get around the front corner of it. The mint-green girl looked to the side to see her, and her smile of excitement only grew wider.

"Oh hey, it's fly-girl Gail! Look at that, you really can fly!" she exclaimed, "Man, if I didn't know better, I'd say all of us were in a real big race right now-!"

"REESE!" Nadir called out again.

"Alright alright!" Reese dramatically said, "Been trying to slow this guy down, but I swear it's like this cart's got a mind of it's own!"

"Not to worry, I'll just get in front of it...!" Gail said, angling herself to be positioned directly in front of the mining cart. Once there, she leaned her whole body backwards; her entire upper body and arms pressed hard against the front, while her flight pack added in the strength of pushing against it as well.

Back in the rear, Liz still hung on to the moving cart. She herself was not moving as fast, but her mind on the other hand was hard and fast at work. There was little reason she couldn't stop this cart herself as well; the question was how?

"I got it...!" she declared to herself. She aimed one of her Kaginawa Tsume at the the ground behind her, above the speeding mine track that passed her by. The clawed weapon shot out and dug itself into the ground, while also latching onto one of the wooden boards for added grip. With one in place, she could aid in at least keeping this thing anchored in place. However, what resulted was not what Liz was expecting at all- The weapon held, but the rope itself having reached complete tautness on her end, she was forcibly jerked free from the cart!

Liz was left sprawling flat upon the ground, the wind momentarily knocked out of her. Her ears rang both with the sound wind that had passed through them earlier, as well as the trailing sound of the mining cart. That is, until another faint sound could be heard; the sound of her name being called out from afar...

"Liz...!" Liz was still pulling herself to all fours by now, so she couldn't look up to see the form of Gail as it had called out to her. She did however managed to jerk her arm to shake her Kaginawa Tsume loose from the spot in the ground it was dug into. Now free, she retracted the weapon quickly and back upon the familiar position, atop the back of her fist. As she did so, she was made aware of rhe familiar hum of Gail's flight pack nearing her position, then stopping as she landed right beside her.

"Are you alright?!" the girl's hands could be felt on her sides to try and lift her up. Liz instinctively offered aversion to the assistance, but in the end accepted the help to rise to her feet.

"Yeah, I'm fine," the faunus said, shaking her arms of loose dirt that had built up upon them, "Just a bit shaken."

"What were you even doing?" Gail asked, "I had it under control to slow that thing down!"

"I was trying to slow it down too!" Liz said, gently indicating to her weapon, "I tried to tie it down with one of my Kaginawa-"

"And that worked out so well, didn't it?" Gail challenged, "You should have just stayed on that thing!"

"Oh yeah? Then why didn't you stay with it just now?" Liz challenged back, "Why waste your time in coming back for the faunus?" Her statement was met with a harsh glare from the dark blue haired girl. Even with her goggles still covering her eyes, there was no denying a fury that was held within them.

"You are so... so difficult!" she practically exploded, "Does everything have to be an issue of race with you?! Maybe you should have stayed on there as a means of keeping us all in one place? Maybe I came back for you as a means of checking on your well-being? Maybe issues of race were the furthest thing from my mind at every given moment? Does any of that ever occur to you?!"

In the midst of her tangent, and before Liz could fire off a retort of her own, another rumbling through the ground could be felt. It wasn't any similar rumble to when the mining cart had flown past them at high speed. No, this was a different sort of rumble; it could be felt from much deeper beneath them. The two girls' gazes broke away from each other as they took steps around.

"What the..." Liz said, looking all around at the ground.

Suddenly, and without warning, a section of the ground burst apart near their location. A long, white-carapace covered form practically shot itself out of the ground, curling inwards towards their location.

"Grimm!" Gail called out. She was quick to move- slashing her Cadenza to the right and carve deep into the Centinel's head before it could land upon her with its jaws. Starting from the now openly slashed apart head, the body of the Centinel began to slowly disintegrate into small black specks. As there was no wind blowing, the specks were left to simply flutter to the floor, coating the ground and the mining tracks in black.

Gail had spun out of the way as she had made her strike, and had now regained her footing to refocus herself. She held Cadenza's tip out and forward cautiously as she regained her senses.

Liz on the other hand was facing her own problems. A pair of Centinels had burst out of the ground, one on each side of her, and were quick to bear down on her. She quickly jumped to the side to slash at one of them with her Kaginawa Tsume, throwing it's projected strike completely off course. The other Grimm being slightly behind was freed up to aim better at the faunus girl. This time Liz was forced to focus her attention on slashing at this Centinel's forward maw, one claw strike after the other, to keep it at bay. She gritted her teeth with each strike, as she found each one had caused her to step backward progressively.

With a quick swipe of the palm of her hand, she produced a Scaleshield directly in front of her face. The Centinel was forced to crash itself head-on into the projection, leaving the faunus girl to roll out of the way. However, this proved to be a bad move as she had quickly found she rolled into the path of the other Centinel, about to bear down hard upon her.

"Drgh! Come one...!" she protested. Why did she get stricken with such rotten luck as this?! She pointed both of her weapons out, the claws popping open and prepared to fire clean rounds through the Grimm. The Centinel in question was prepared to strike forward against Liz in turn-

Until it was suddenly jolted and hit hard by something. A glowing blue blur suddenly came from off to the side and rammed itself into the Centinel's unguarded mid-section. Gail used her left hand to support her during the initial impact, while her right hand bore down the creature hard by burying Cadenza deep into the Grimm all the way up to the hilt. A light, melodious sound filled the air as the blade sunk itself into the black of the Grimm's body, combined with the cry of pain the creature let out in addition. It jerked to the side in motion with Gail's blitz strike, and the two were drew to the ground in no time.

Gail grunted as she herself hit the ground with little more than her own arms to brace her impact. The Centinel on the other hand continued to click its mandibles in audible pain from the impalement of Gail's Cadenza lodged clean into its midsection. Its spiked legs on its sides wiggled helplessly, and its head jerked to the side to try and bite at the human. Gail caught sight of this and gasped. With a quick twist of Cadenza, she completely yanked it clean of the centinel's body, black specks of the Grimm's body beginning to erode off of it. The centinel in question's movements began to gradually slow down until they ceased altogether, followed closely by its entire body disintegrating entirely.

In spite of what had just happened involving her, Liz could not help but smirk in approval at what she had just seen. So this human was more than just getting on her nerves; she could actually kill Grimm. Against her better judgement, Liz could feel a touch of respect for her; begrudgingly it may be.

Her approval was quickly replaced by alarm and surprise. Off to the sides, the other centinels were twisting inwards to strike at the human girl. Gail herself was nearly caught off guard. With a yelp, she bent her body forward in a leap to fly her forward and out of harm's way.

Liz was then left to flip her Kaginawa Tsume claws open and rain rounds down upon the Grimm. The majority of them glanced off of the Grimm's white armored carapaces, while only a few of them found their mark in the softer black tissue. The Grimm twitched in pain, and clicked in anger and annoyance. They were then left with re-twisting themselves to follow after the flying girl's path.

Gail herself had flown away and was now hovering right next to where Liz stood.

"Whoa, that was close-!" she started, until yet another vibration was felt. This time, as opposed to the ground itself below, the vibrations actually seemed to be felt from... the side walls?

With a combined yelp, both Liz and Gail leaped backwards as on opposing walls, two more Centinels burst forth to strike at two girls were now backing up furiously, with the passage before them positively choked with angry centinels.

"This, this is too much," Gail said. In her hand, she deactivated the blade of Cadenza, now holding the bare hilt in her hand.

"That's, a lot of them, yeah..." Liz found herself agreeing. She was also vaguely aware of the unconscious step she was taking back. With the number of centinels that were gathered directly in front of them, who could blame her?

"We should get out of here; run away!" Gail suggested, followed by her shooting a glance directly behind them at the other tunnel direction, "There! Reese and Nadir went that way anyway! We could catch up with them if we go fast!" She didn't even wait for a response from her lizard faunus counterpart, as Gail was already speed-flying down the tunnel. Liz herself was nearly left behind by this sudden action.

"Whoa, hey! Wait up!" she called after her. She quickly turned tail, quite literally, and ran after Gail. Behind her the centinels could be heard clicking and chattering more aggressively, as well as the clear sounds that they were giving pursuit.

But Liz herself wasn't at any point about to glance behind her to see just how far they were back there. She was running hard and fast to keep up pace with the high-speed flight of Gail. The girl in question was simply flying forward with hardly any physical effort on her part! Why couldn't she get such cool stuff for herself?!

Within a few moments of heated running and pace keeping, Liz was running well and alongside Gail's own flight.

"Where do you think those two, 'Reese and Nadir', ended up at?" Liz called out over the sound of the Grimm behind them.

"No idea... but we'll soon be finding out...!" was Gail's simple reply. With that, the two huntresses-in-training proceeded to keep running down the mining-track lined tunnel, following behind where Reese and Nadir would surely be ending up.

---

Eleanor ran down the decently lit underground tunnel. It was very fortunate that these tunnels she was delving deeper into were showing more and more Dust clusters. Not only were they natural at illuminating the pathways, but if cultivated just right could be made to use as ammunition for one's weapons.

However, that they were lighting the way was not the more pressing issue.

Eleanor had been positively lost by the time she had finally stopped falling down from that rather abrupt 'drop' they were all forced into. She had feared the worst had she not used the Ivorashu's blade dug into the wall to slow down her fall. Training to become a huntress she gathered wouldn't be easy, but this was just ridiculous! Why couldn't Professor Celsius have given a decent heads-up about, quite literally, 'dropping' them into the action?! Furthermore, into the depths of Mount Everett no less; a Mistral landmark that most certainly a nesting ground for all sorts of Grimm!

And judging from the faint sounds she could hear reverberating off of the walls from the distance, Grimm were likely not too far away either. What she guessed could only be Grimm must be engaged in battle with something else. Since Grimm usually only attack sentient beings and rarely each other, it was possible that she could be finding someone for the first time since arriving here!

With her Ivorashu gripped tightly in both hands, Eleanor bounded down the narrow passageway. The tunnel showed a literal light at the end of it, yet it was moderately lit just to show a different room of equal lighting awaited her. Every once in a while, Eleanor caught the glimpse of light flashes as well as rounds being fired off. These shots that were fired off usually were followed by a strange screeching sound. Someone was definitely down here already! She finally emerged out of the tunnel and into the the next room that awaited her.

What did await her were Grimm, as well as in fact another student. It was a very familiar girl, with a short head of hair, clothing that looked to be little more than rags, and most notably a massive shell-looking thing that covered the majority of her back, all the way down to the backs of her thighs. Angelita Amarillo must not have heard her approach just yet, or she might have acknowledged her perhaps. In her hands she held her weapon, which she apparently used it for swinging and bashing Grimm with.

Before her were a pack of aerial type Grimm. Small in size, packed in numbers, leather-like wings, stark-white head carapaces and glistening teeth. They were definitely Ravagers; something she remembered from learning in Refuge. They were easy enough to kill, but hard to properly fix on. Which from the sight alone, Angelita was having a little trouble in doing just that. The Ravagers were flying all around her in scattered formations, must too fast for her.

"Hey there!" Eleanor called out as she flipped her Ivorashu in her hands to aim the barrel at the Grimm. The shelled girl definitely heard her that time, as she spared the moment to look in her direction with widened eyes. A small number of the Ravagers also heard her as well, as they turned their heads as well. Eleanor took careful aim, her barrel pointed well out of the way of Angelita, and fired away.

In an instant, as well as the insane kick that Ivorashu was known to give, her ears exploded from the deafening explosion. She winced and shook her head; the ringing in them persisted even after there was a brief pause in-between shots fired. The shots' echoes within this cavern area must have amplified the gunshot all the more!

Before her however, she had apparently struck true. A few of the Ravagers had been blown cleanly away, leaving black flakes to flutter away into nothing. In response, the Ravagers themselves began to scatter; flying away very disorganized and non-coordinated with each other. There was definitely a sense of panic within them now.

"Ugh... thanks!" Eleanor could hear Angelita call out. It could've just been the ringing in her ears, but for some reason she couldn't tell if she was speaking sarcastically or sincerely.

Nonetheless, Eleanor quickly advanced closer until she stood side-by-side with the back-armored girl.

"Are you alright?" she asked, a little louder than was needed admittedly.

"I... I had it under control!" Angelita replied. Before the taller girl could say anything more, the two of them looked back up at the Ravager pack before them. Now scattered and flying almost individually, they were beginning to fly down towards them randomly at differing intervals. As one, Angelita aimed her Anky, and Eleanor aimed her Ivorashu, both weapons' barrels straight at the pack of Grimm, and fired their rounds off. Projectiles from both weapons exploded out, carving a straight path through the Ravagers. The Grimm screeches reverberated off of the walls as they were quickly dispatched. The last of them were quickly destroyed, leaving the two girls alone finally. In that moment, Eleanor was finally hoping there'd be a moment of rest.

However, that rest was not to happen quite so soon. The two girls watched with widened eyes as they realized something. Their rounds they had fired off just now had pierced through the Ravagers and struck the rock wall behind them. They had hit the solid rock plenty of times it seemed, with the projectiles of their weapons having been very strong, and now the rock was beginning to give!

The two of them jumped back to avoid the rock collapsing down upon them as well. With a mighty crash, the small avalanche had fallen and crashed to the ground in a massive cloud of dust.

"No... NO!" Angelita suddenly exclaimed, catching Eleanor off-guard.

"Wh-what?! What is it?" she said.

"What do you mean?! That rock slide just fell and blocked the pathway!" Angelita said, arm raised towards the now cave-in. Eleanor's head suddenly shot back to face the rockslide, her eyes widened in alarm. Was she serious?

"Well... aren't there other ways out of this room...?" the taller girl looked all around where they stood within. A widened chamber, with sections of the wall holding clusters of Dust crystals that illuminated a small patch of the darkness. They were located along the higher, upper sections of the walls, with little hope that they could be reached by normal means. Still, their small light was able to reveal the now obvious fact: this chamber was a complete one-way passageway. There was only that incline that she herself had taken to enter this room in the first place, and now the only other way out of this room, if the other girl was to be believed, was cut off via a cave-in!

"We- We couldn't have known, Angelita-" Eleanor tried to explain to the other girl. Upon turning back to her, she was met with a strange sight. The other girl had curled herself forward and crouched herself into a ball. But not only that, the back armor she wore had wrapped itself over her body as well so that she essentially looked completely like a completely spherical ball. She took a single step back as her in this ball-form began to spin in place for a second, then roll itself forward, straight at the collapsed rubble wall. The ball impacted, but bounced off of it in an upwards arc before returning to the ground again, only for it to dash forward again.

Eleanor watched as Angelita in ball form dashed forward, again and again. Each impact landed as close as possible to the previous hit. Unfortunately, the hardened rock held strong against this unorthodox onslaught. With each failed strike at piercing the rock, Eleanor's concern for the girl grew and grew.

Eventually, after nearly seven strikes, Angelita's form rolled out of its curled up ball form, this time without any wide-arc return. The back-armored girl was left tumbling backwards while rolling across her body and her armor, finally coming to a skidding halt near Eleanor's feet. She looked down and was rather shocked to find the expression on the other girl's face. It was completely horror-stricken, as well as a few tears welling up in her eyes.

"Are- are you alright-"

"Gah! Why won't it-" Angelita suddenly scrambled back to her feet, making the other girl jump back in surprise. She gripped her Anky by the end of its lengthened shaft and charged back at the wall, this time on her own feet. Eleanor couldn't see her face, but she could definitely hear the shriek in her voice; that was pure desperation.

"Why can't I break free?!"

She whacked the mace-head of Anky against the wall, striking at the same spots where her ball form had impacted. Each strike did not break the wall in the slightest however, only bouncing off of the rocky surface with a reverberating clang that echoed throughout the chamber. Each strike was accompanied by a grunt of frustration from Angelita, growing more and more frantic each time.

Each cry that reached Eleanor's ears filled her with more and more sympathy for the other girl. Combined with watching the futility of the other's struggles against the wall, nothing was changing. This collapsed wall of solid rock was just not budging from what Angelita was doing alone. But it wasn't just that; it was the pure desperation in her efforts... She had to stop her.

"Angelita, stop!" Eleanor called out while reaching for her. She grabbed a hand on top of the side of her shoulder that her armor didn't cover to try and shake her, but the other girl simply shook herself free.

"Let go!" she exclaimed, content to resume smacking the wall again.

"Angelita!" Eleanor shouted even louder. She had nearly surprised herself with how overly forceful she had sounded. This combined with her hand going for a tighter grip on the shoulder again. This time she held tighter and managed to pull the other girl away from facing the rock.

What greeted her however was Angelita's face absolutely panic and terror stricken, combined with tears that were welling up in her eyes.

"Let me go!" she cried out, desperate to shake herself free, "I've got to- to break free!"

"Just calm down, it's gonna be fine-!"

"I gotta get out of here-!" For a moment, in between Angelita's protests, she found herself looking up at Eleanor's face. Calm yet concerned eyes met extreme and terror-filled eyes. Slowly but surely, Angelita's physical struggles began to die down, until she was left with visible shaking in Eleanor's hand.

"Are you alright now...?" Eleanor asked, to which Angelita slowly twitched her head up and down, "Are you... are you afraid of the dark...?"

"N-not dark, but..." Angelita's head darted all around at the space the two of them stood in, "This space feels... small. I don't like... small spaces. It's like they'll crush me...!" She turned her head back to the collapsed rock wall, "And there! That way was the only way to go, then the rocks fell and blocked it! I'm trapped!" Her quivering returned a little stronger now.

Eleanor turned her head around to the collapsed rock before them. It was true that it was caused by the two of them shooting their weapons carelessly and causing a small cave-in, but there was no sense in worrying about that now. All that mattered was getting out of here.

"This way really was the only way out of this room?" she asked. Angelita nodded, a little more concise this time, "Well then, you shouldn't waste energy, ammo, or your Semblance on this wall that much anymore; it's clearly not getting us anywhere-"

"But-but, it's all I've got!" Angelita protested, "I use both my spin-dash Semblance and use slug rounds in Anky, and I've got to be making progress!"

"It's not enough though!" Eleanor insisted, "And I'm only saying don't waste anymore time on it because... well..."

"What?"

"Because... I've got a solution..." If only this could be called anything other than a solution, but there really was little other choice for options here.

"Wait, what? You've got a way to get me- er, us out of here?!" Angelita said, "Well, what are you waiting for?! Get us out of here! What is it, some kind of Semblance of yours?"

"Well, I mean..." Eleanor hesitated, "My Semblance is definitely... strong..." Strong. Strong was an absolute understatement. In fact, that was probably one of the few words that could hardly do justice to sheer force of her power that her Semblance afforded. In the back of her mind she almost saw flashes of memories long since past; memories tied with her Semblance that caused her great anxiety. Shaking her head, she glanced back at Angelita. She was almost dead set on trying to change the subject in refusing to follow through, were it not for the look on the other girl's face.

Angelita's face was largely the same as before. She looked back at her with tear-filled eyes, completely horror-stricken, and quivering lips. Nothing had changed from before; she was absolutely desperate. She was that desperate to be out of this place, and in comparison her own anxieties started to feel lesser and lesser in comparison. She hardly knew this girl for even twenty four hours, yet she was already having this type of effect on her.

With a hefty sigh, Eleanor turned away and stepped up to the collapsed rock wall. She curled her fingers in one hand and brought it close to her body in concentration. A quick size-up of the wall gave her the most general view of the type of force she figured she'd need. Still, she'd need to have this be just right...

She then thrust her arm forward and slapped the flat of her palm against the wall's surface, leaving it planted there. In the handful of seconds that followed, there was a small hum that quickly rose in pitch via vibrations from within the wall itself. This was then followed by a mighty roar as the wall instantly exploded into fragmented rocks that quickly lost their shape and stability with one another. Eleanor had to jump back quickly to avoid another rock collapse risking falling on top of her.

The two girls coughed through the massive dust that had kicked up until finally it had all died down. Visibility slowly returned to each of them as they looked up.

"I... I did it!" Eleanor exclaimed. She focused her vision forward at where this previously unforeseen pathway now led them. Sure enough was a literal light at the end of the tunnel, "This way does lead out to somewhere!"

"Whoa...! That's your Semblance!?" Angelita exclaimed, "Unbelievable! Why would you ever-" Her praises were cut short by the sound of more rumbling that followed. The two girls looked up at the ceiling and were further alarmed at what they saw: another cave-in! This time was stretching all the way back and into the room they currently stood within!

"Unbelievable! Why would you ever-" Angelita started with chastising tone in her voice before she was cut off by a rock that had fallen down a little too close to them. The shorter girl wasted no more time as she curled herself back into her ball form and quickly rolled out through the cleared pathway, leaving a bewildered Eleanor behind her.

"Whoa! Hey, wait up...!" she called out and ran after her. That Angelita may have been shorter than her, but she was definitely putting distance between them; especially in that 'ball-form' of hers! She'd need to put extra bound in her step if she were to catch up!

As she cleared the tunnel entrance, a quick glance behind her told her that entire chamber had completely caved in. She wasn't waiting around to find out if it would follow though! She turned forward and focused her efforts on running straight in front of her, desperate to keep up with the back-armored girl!

---

With a grunt, Nikau Kiwi brought down his weapon Cunning Angler's head down hard into the body of the Grimm. The Centinel screeched a pitiful little cry of pain as its white carapace armor was cleaved straight through. In the seconds following its death it completely disintegrated into black specks upon the tunnel ground.

The young man wasted no time as he looked back up to regard his other foe. He'd been ambushed just now out of nowhere by two of these Centinel Grimm, and Brothers only knew if there would be any more around. This would need to be wrapped up quickly, so that hopefully he could get on with this huntsman's test.

The other centinel clicked its front mandibles in anticipation in the human's general direction. It carried itself along the side walls straight towards Nikau. As it bore down on him, the boy wouldn't be able to pull his weapon up to swing at the Grimm in time to knock it away. Luckily for him, there was another option of defense he could count on.

His left hand still holding on to weapon to raise it back up, his right arm extended out towards the Grimm to meet it. That same arm began to glow ever brighter as flames manifested all along the outside. The limb was completely coated in fire, though not doing any sort of burn damage to his own body at all; after all, what good would a Semblance of fire creation be if his own body was burned by it? His arm first held a clenched fist at the Centinel, then quickly burst that fist open to allow flames to explode out. The fire did its job in greatly burning both the white armor of the body as well ass the softer black flesh of the Grimm, both causing the Grimm to screech in pain as loudly as its friend did. It's attack path was then knocked off course by the sudden meeting of flames head-on, and the Centinel for a moment was left hanging in the air vulnerable. The perfect time to strike was now.

Nikau brought his weapon-held left hand up and carved straight through the body of the Grimm. The complete bisection left the Grimm disintegrating almost instantly.

Both Grimm were dealt with, and Nikau just as quickly deactivated the flames upon his arm, thus casting the tunnel he stood in back into darkness again. It was best not to risk any needless attention with his Semblance of fire. After all, these two Grimm happened upon him seemingly out of nowhere; heat and light would likely draw in more.

"If only it was someone else who could see the light of my fire," he softly said to himself, "Where could the other test-takers be?" It didn't make much sense; they'd all been dropped down the same trapdoor up on the surface around the same time, so how could they all have ended up at such completely different locations underground? Just how deep and complex were these underground tunnels that fed into this Mount Everett? It certainly didn't help that he was a stranger to this land of Anima; hardly anything he had ever seen in his life before. Still, his intent to become a huntsman was clear, which meant starting off with passing this first test-

A deep rumbling could be heard, causing him to perk his head up again. His mind was first alerted to the possibility of more Centinels appearing, just as these two had done before. His eyes narrowed as he listened closer; this rumble sounded and felt slightly different than that of the incoming Grimm. It felt lower and seemed to vibrate all throughout these dark, stone walls surrounding him. Still, just to be cautious and safe, he held his Cunning Angler out in front of him as he looked around, slowly walking backward.

"Could it be another Grimm though?" he said to himself, "Maybe... a bigger centinel...?" His question was answered by the form of rocks beginning to break off the ceiling above him and fall down. He was forced to jump back to avoid the worst of the collapse, however it did not stop there. In fact, the tumbling of rocks only seemed to grow exponentially! There was no denying it- that deep rumbling he'd heard earlier was causing this tunnel he stood in to completely cave in!

"Of course it had to be a cave in! Why make this easy...?!" With that he spun in place and practically bolted in the opposite direction. Was this the correct way to go? It didn't matter now, as it was now the only option in which he could proceed! At least there were these clusters of Dust crystal growths sticking out from the wall at sparse points, breaking up the pure darkness. They provided a better view of a pathway he could follow along. If only there were time to harvest the Dust themselves for potential ammo for his weapon, but sadly that wasn't likely to happen.

He continued to run forward, panting slightly as he forced himself to press forward. Actual dust clouds began to reach out to him in a clear wave to envelope rocks caving in grew steadily closer behind him, and even without turning around Nikau could tell they were gaining on him!

"Come on... come on...!" he panted. Looking forward and ahead of him, the pathway he was following continued to bob and weave from side to side, while also curving upward slightly. Onwards and upwards as someone once said; let's hope that onwards and upwards actually would lead somewhere...!

---

"So everything is progressing smoothly?"

"It is, Headmaster; the students have all been 'deposited' into the the mountain and are now commencing with their tests."

"And all of our surveillance equipment installed within the mountain's tunnels are working to optimum degree. We have positive readings on the activity."

Leonardo Lionheart nodded in approval. Standing with him were three subordinate instructors. Professor Heath Newton relayed the developments to him to him as he sat before a massive setup of multiple screens, each one showing a green vision of a various section of an underground location. Occasionally some of the images would break the stillness with a quick burst of movement upon them, either from students, Grimm, or even both. This little 'station' they stood in rested at the very base of the mountain, with two individual transports parked nearby to them.

"Ah yes, 'deposited', meant very literal, isn't it Kelvin?" Professor Venus Cypress said with a smile, "I bet you enjoy it too; seeing the looks on their faces right as it happens; they just never expect it!"

"If they ever hope to become the huntsmen and huntress they come here to be, they'd do well to not be deterred by surprises like that," Professor Celsius said with a shrug, "What does work in their favor is how quickly they can adapt. Case in point, Miss Nacht."

"Oh yes, that Gail Nacht girl?" Leonardo spoke up, "She's that transfer student from Mantle isn't she? Same as you I'd assume, Kelvin?"

"Indeed..." Professor Celsius said. After a pause, he then looked back up at the camera feed. Lionheart was quick to pick up the sign, and shook his head with a quick cough.

"And how are we doing on the Grimm situation?" he asked, turning to Professor Newton, "What all can be expected?"

"Reports of a couple of stray groups of the smaller ones; Centinels specifically," the man answered his question, "There were Ravagers, but those didn't appear to be in any active state at the time. Probably just resting. If these young students are smart, they'll mind themselves down there..."

"And we're certain there's nothing 'too' dangerous down there?" Professor Celsius pressed, "Nothing that would immediately call for intervention on our part?"

"Rest assured, Kelvin," the sitting professor answered him, "Reported sightings of Grimm at C Rank or higher are minimalistic to nil. Larger ones do tend to get detected more easily after all. I personally spotted a Diamondback Grimm in Grand Chamber Delta appearing largely inactive, and a Birgani Grimm located at Bravo."

"A Birgani? Here?" Venus said with a raised eyebrow.

"Is that all? Nothing classified as dangerous than that has been spotted-?" Kelvin spoke, up until he felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned his head to see the reassuring face of the faunus Headmaster.

"Should situations turn too unfavorable for our students-to-be, we will intervene; you have my solemn promise on that," he spoke professionally to the three. The humans traded looks with each other, almost not reassured at first. Finally they gave a gentle nods of their heads, one by one.

Kelvin turned back around to monitor the screens before him, "Well, at best for them is the fact that these Grimm are largely ground based. And at C Ranked... let's see how well they fare... "

---

-As I've said before, if you enjoyed what you've seen so far, do consider reviewing! Your thoughts would be very much appreciated! I've got plenty more on the way to be officially published! See ya real soon!-