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.

8. Vol 1: Puzzle pieces

-I'm much more conscious and awake as I upload this chapter this time. Also as a sort of related note, as of today the next RWBY book 'Roman Holiday' has just hit the shelves, or in most cases can be found on online sites like Amazon. It's the next book in the recent RWBY literary series, this time as a prequel book that showcases Roman Torchwick and Neopolitan's rise to power as the crime duo they were shown to be at the start of the series! Get a copy while you can!

Anyway, shameless promotions of others' works out of the way, on to the shameless promotion of my own work to you! (lol jk) Read and enjoy!-

---

The sounds of two separate footsteps echoed throughout the narrow, barely illuminated tunnel. One was a heavier set of steps, the other were lighter, more timid steps. The heavier ones maintained a consistent tempo of stride, while the other ones were more frantic and out of rhythm. These kinds of steps taken were perfect mirrors to how the owners themselves were feeling in the moment.

Victor marched on through the tunnel with complete confidence. The darkness before him was no obstacle at all since he could see very much perfectly. The pathway stretched out a little further on, curving back and forth to the side here and there, while also in a gentle incline. So far there hadn't been any deviations from this set pathway laid out before them. They also hadn't run into anyone else along the way, not fellow test-takers nor even Grimm. The latter due to how they were making sure to keep much quieter as he led the way through the tunnel. Though in all honesty, one of them was definitely keeping quieter than the other...

From time to time, the faunus boy would spare a quick glance behind him at the smaller human girl. Definitely for no other reason than to make sure she was still there. It was time enough that he got better looks at her. She was just so small! She stood a considerable shorter height than him, her head barely at level with his own chest. Even her body parts like her head, arms, and legs all looked so small on her frame, like the smallest bit of force could break her! She wore some orange billed cap on her head facing forward with jet black hair spilling out the back, and a vest of lighter orange color over a black shirt. In her hands were those tiny little blades. Just as small as she was...

How did someone like her ever get here in the first place?

Well, not that it really mattered much anyway. He was here to pass this test and become a huntsman. And if that meant this girl would be following him, well that was whatever...

But he was sure not going to be babysitting her! Definitely not!

"Man, just how deep are these tunnels anyway...?" Oriel's voice could be heard behind him. The question wasn't directed at him, or at least to him it didn't sound like it, so he gave no response to it. He just continued to walk, the sound of her footsteps telling him she was still trailing behind.

"Were they mined by miners, or people who worked down here?" she spoke again, "H-how could anybody work so far down in the ground? In the dark...?" They were people who did this sort of thing for a living? Again, another question Victor didn't have an answer to. How much more was this girl planning to complain about?

"Don't really know..." he managed. He could hear a small gasp behind him, followed by a sigh.

"You uh... you don't talk much, do you...?" she spoke again.

"Not when there's nothing to talk about..." he replied as simply as he could.

"Oh, sorry..." Oriel pressed, "It's just, being in scary places like this? Like the dark? I-I just need to talk; to someone, or heck even to myself! Just to help me feel like I'm not alone..." Ironically, a moment of silence was felt between them once again. Victor continued to walk along the ascending pathway that could very subtly be felt rising sharper at points. In the midst of the walk-climb, a strange feeling could be felt in the pit of his stomach. The dark never scared him, being a faunus and all, so it wasn't like that was something he could relate to. But while the dark didn't scare him, he definitely was not keen on loneliness... Maybe it was not so bad to have someone walking with him right about now-

"Agh!" a short, high-pitched yelp quickly rang out against the tunnel walls. Victor instantly shot around to see what had just happened with his human counterpart. His alarm quickly dissipated and was replaced with mild annoyance to find the girl instead on the ground, having tripped forward.

"Ow-! S-sorry! I slipped on that... that rock there..." Oriel grunted. With a grunt of his own, Victor found himself reaching one hand down to pick the smaller girl up by the arm and back up to her feet. Oriel let out a small squeak as she was lifted back up onto her feet, "H-Hey! You don't, er... I mean, thank you..."

"Hmph, be more careful next time..." the rhino faunus said. He started to turn back around until he quickly added, "And keep your voice down! Who knows what else might hear you...!"

"R-right, yes..." The two were back into their previous walk pattern once again. Victor led the way through the darkened tunnel with Oriel bringing up the rear. Though unbeknownst to the faunus boy, and possibly as an unconscious action on her part, Oriel closed the distance between them ever so tighter than before. She also took extra care in watching where she stepped; no rocks would be tripping her up again, no matter how loose they were.

The tunnel they walked in remained its constant dimness. The shorter girl was barely able to make out the outline of the larger faunus boy walking in front of her, a constant reminder of where she was, and where she was going. Every so often he would turn as he walked, along side the direction the pathway would curve. This combined with the steady, noticeable incline in the tunnel as they walked up provided a light, healthy amount of burn for her calves as they ascended.

For the longest time, as well in agreeable silence, the two walked in darkness. This went on for at least five more minutes until something began to change. At some point, Oriel came to notice that she could actually 'see' a little bit of what was before her. The textures in the walls, the sedimentary ground she walked upon, even the image of Victor himself could be seen a little clearer! There was light beginning to illuminate her vision by now! But where...

"Is that..." she squinted forward at something; a small, dot of glow on the trail before her that steadily grew larger, "Light! That's a way out! Isn't it...?"

"Quiet! Let's see..." Victor quickly hushed her. The two continued to walk towards this literal light at the end of the tunnel, Oriel just a little bit faster than Victor. The light before them grew wider and brighter, and finally with a few more steps, crossed out into the light's complete embrace.

The room they stood in now was radically different from the tunnel. It was a massive, enlarged chamber, with a natural rocky roof stretching out many miles above their heads. The light that had greeted them turned out to be a multitude of Dust crystal clusters decorating the walls at scattered locations. With their multi-colored glow, they lit up the entirety of the chamber in soft illumination. With cleared vision, Oriel could now see clearly in detail where she stood as well. The air as well felt a little different upon entering this new space as well. As opposed to the cramped, stuffy space of the dusty tunnels, the wider open space of this great chamber felt a little easier to breathe in. As a result, her anxiety she'd held before from being in the dark slowly began to fade away as well.

"Whoa... big place..." she said looking around, "But... where is this...?"

"Hm..." Victor said aloud, "So much space here... probably a place where many people could gather. Could be where mining first started, then stretched out into these tunnels..."

"And look here!" Oriel suddenly pointed down before them. Upon the ground lay sets of rails, supported underneath by flat pieces of wood, "Tracks! Ones that lead into the walls... with tunnels. Like the one we came out of!" She turned her gaze to folllow along this time the opposite direction that they led. This time they all converged into a grander turntable that fed into a more centralized rail, one of which fed directly into an opposing wall, and a massive metallic door, "They all go there... Could that be where they came from? A way out even?"

Victor gave no reply as he approached the turntable area. The station itself was a more metallic base dug into the ground that supported the tracks. Guardrails sprouted up along its edges here and there. Off to another section was an collection of four-wheeled mining carts, all positioned side-by-side on separate small tracks that fed into the turntable as well.

He then looked to the wall itself. The large, upright flattened wall that stood straight up at ninety degrees. It rose high into the air until it met the roof in the diminished light. At the base however was the sealed metal door. There was no mistaking its function for anything other than an elevator door.

"This is definitely the way to get out of here..." he noted, "Maybe up and out of this mountain."

"R-really?!" Oriel said, quickly rushing up to join him, "W-well then, what are we waiting for? Let's use it to get out of here!"

"Not so fast..." Victor cut her off, first with a held up hand and followed by him turning his head to her direction, "I don't plan to leave yet; not until I find those stupid pieces of the stone-things..."

"Oh yeah, the control stone pieces Professor Celsius mentioned..." Oriel's face became downcast for a moment, until she shook her head, "But still-! Where would we hope to find them? He never exactly told us 'where' in Mount Everret they'd be found! And plus they're in pieces; wouldn't that mean we 'can't' complete this without others finding theirs as well-"

"Quiet! Just calm down!" Victor exclaimed, putting a hand on his head, "I'm trying to think here..."

"Well those are good points!" Oriel pressed, looking back and forth between the faunus boy before her and the surrounding area all around her, "How are we supposed to proceed? What do we do...?"

"Great... I hear something..." Victor spoke lowly. His remark immediately put Oriel back on edge in a different way though. She looked at him to find him staring over at one of the tunnels in the wall around them. The tunnel hole in question was dark to see into, yet the faintest echoes could be heard from within. But without any substantial light, there was no way to tell what exactly was making the noise. Oriel tensed up again as her eyes widened in anxiety.

"Oh no, oh no..." she said, hands reaching to grip her Talons, "Don't tell me... we were followed? By more Grimm?!"

"Just calm down then!" Victor chastised, "Don't you know about them? How they hunt? They're attracted to bad emotions, like fear! So just don't be scared of them and they can't see you!" He then turned his gaze back forward to focus on the tunnel in question.

"Don't be scared?!" Oriel exclaimed incredulously, "How exactly can't you be scared of those things?!" Her two Talons in each hand, she cautiously stepped closer to the boy, while he remained staring at the tunnel entrance himself. The noise within grew steadily louder, and Oriel finally spoke up again, "W-well? Can't you see what's in there? Is there Grimm?"

"I see... something..." Victor squinted to focus his eyes, then narrowed them just as quickly, "It's Grimm." Oriel herself repressed a yelp that had nearly escaped her lips. She wanted to scream out in some kind of terror at this news, until she was reminded of what Victor had just told her a moment ago. Mustering her inner strength, she tried her best to metaphorically swallow her fear, with perhaps mixed results, "Wait, there's something else in there...?"

"Wait what?" the small girl was caught off-guard by that sudden addition.

"Oh... oh wow..." Victor followed up with a tone of... annoyance? This was further punctuated by his attack stance relaxing slowly. Oriel also looked closely at the tunnel entrance. The noise within had definitely come to a head at this point, as well as something within bursting out into the open.

A figure practically leaped straight out of the dark of the tunnel and into the open, a male figure. He sported a face of excitement, with eyes widened and mouth open in laughter. In his arm he held a long white pipe-like object with one end burning a brilliant flame orange glow. Jackson Lithe leapt straight forward with two other things following behind him; a pair of Centinels curved and weaved through the air as they chased after him.

In mid-air, he turned his body around completely so that he was now facing his two pursuers. He brought the glowing end of his weapon forward and let fly two bursts of fire dust blasts at them. The blasts scored direct hits on the Centinels' faces, effectively shattering their heads and causing them to disintegrate into death. Jackson on the other hand was free to then stick his free hand out and over his head as he spun backward in the air. He caught his weight on the ground and threw himself up and flipped back up onto his feet.

"Yeah! Teach you two to mess with me!" he declared, putting on the show of spinning his weapon in his hand for show. He then sheathed his weapon onto his back and turned around, only to be greeted with two more figures that thankfully were not Grimm, "Oh, hey- more people? Vic! Fancy running into you down here!"

"Yeah, how could this have happened...?" Victor replied with a lowered tone.

"That, that was amazing!" Oriel exclaimed as the fellow human boy approached them, "The way you killed those Grimm like that! And the way you moved! How did you do that?"

"Heh, it's about time I be recognized," Jackson spoke cockily while practially strutting over to join Victor and Oriel, "I guess you could say I was born with natural talent. The talent of being quick on my feet, perfect when I need to-"

"When he needs to run away he means," Victor cut in, drawing both eyes to him. He spoke with an aloof tone, yet he could faintly be seen trying to conceal a small smile from forming, "I know of this human; he's quick, I'll give him that. But when it comes to packing a punch? Nuh-uh..."

"Ah yes, Vic; there's that sense of humor I've always expected from you!" Jackson said, hardly caring about the verbal jab he'd just received, "We hung out together in Refuge Academy before, you know all of what I can do!" He then turned to Oriel, "But you, I've never met you before, so let me introduce myself: Name's Jackson Lithe; soon-to-be best huntsman at this academy!" He finally finished talking by sticking his hand out towards Oriel. The smaller girl was caught off-guard by his absolute boisterous nature, and even more so by his sudden motion for handshake. The entire sequence of events left her almost frozen without a clue, but she finally managed to return his handshake with one of her own.

"I'm Oriel, Oriel Baltimore..." she said, the two releasing their hands, "And, well, I'm here to become a great huntress too... Or, trying to at least..."

"Really? Well be careful there, Oriel, or else I might single you out as a potential rival!" Jackson said, causing Oriel to comically cower before his positively over-the-top attitude, "Ha! Just kidding!"

"Just what I need; one loud and one quiet kid following me..." Victor commented as he turned away to look in a different direction of the chamber, "But that doesn't change things; we were pretty much stuck here before you'd shown up."

"Huh? Stuck here?" Jackson asked. He let himself gaze all upon the chamber's walls before coming to rest upon the elevator door off to the side, "But, we can't be stuck! Can't we just use those elevators to carry us up and out of here?"

"You don't understand," Oriel said, "He means we're 'stuck' here because we can't move on; not without those control stone fragments. We still hadn't found them, and we need to if we ever want to pass this test!"

"Hm? Oh yeah, those stupid little 'puzzle pieces' like that one girl had called them?" the human boy had laughed dismissively before reaching beind him with his free hand, "Well I guess you can say I've got that covered." His statement drew Oriel's and then Victor's attention to him. The two of them looked at his hand, with initial disbelief at what he was showing them. In his hand showed a gray fragmented piece of what appeared to be a stone. Two sides of it were equal in straightness and length, while the shorter end was noticeably more jagged.

"I... I don't believe it! That's one of- you already found one?!" Oriel said, looking back up at Jackson, "But, how?! Where did you find it?"

"Can you believe I almost didn't?" Jackson said, "Blends in so easily with the rocks in these walls; go figure. I'd have completely walked by it if I hadn't seen it stuck into the wall of that tunnel there."

"Your tunnel..." Oriel gave a glance past Jackson and towards the tunnel that they had seen him emerge from, "Wait, is that where they all were? Were there others there?"

"Hm, I doubt it," Jackson shrugged, "I swear it was luck that I found this one, and I'm pretty sure I didn't see any others like it. Course, in between dancing with those two Grimm you saw there, I didn't have good time to look for any others-"

"Hand it over," the simple statement cut in rather forcefully, yet was spoken so casually. Both Oriel and Jackson looked back over at Victor, who was moving to rejoin them. His eyes were focused straight on the human boy before them, as well as looking up and down between his face and the piece he held in hand.

"Um, come again?" Jackson skeptically asked.

"You heard me," the faunus said, "Give me that piece."

"Uh, no? It's mine, get your own?" Jackson gripped the piece tighter in his hand and brought it closer to his body in response. This action only caused Victor to further narrow his eyes at him.

"Victor?" Oriel said, "What are you doing...?" Her answer came in the form of Victor rushing past her and barreling straight towards the other boy. His arm flexed out and prepared to collide straight into him. With a yelp, Jackson quickly and effortlessly jumped out of the way of the running juggernaut of a faunus, regaining his feet to turn back and face him.

"What the heck?! You trying to bull-rush me or something?!" he openly declared.

"Give me that piece, now!" Victor challenged.

"Victor? Stop it!" Oriel exclaimed. She tried her best to make her voice sound as commanding and assertive as the faunus', but unfortunately could not sound more than its high pitch combined with its childish tone, "Why are you attacking him?! Why are you trying to get his piece that he already has?"

"I plan to pass this test," Victor spoke, pulling forth his weapon Cera into his hand, "That means getting my hands on one of those pieces there. And if more can't be found while I'm so close to the exit, then that's the next best thing." He finished by transforming Cera into its magnum form and pointing it in Jackson's direction. The narrow-eyed look of determination was displayed clearly across his face, unwavering. Oriel found herself furthering into disbelief with the words that were coming from his mouth.

"Ha! That's really how it's gonna be with you?" Jackson said with a quick laugh, "I know I hung around you alot at Refuge, but things have changed for me since then. I'm not just following you around for kicks anymore!" He twirled his Candelabra weapon in his hand in a sort of taunting display, "I finally made it to Haven and I'm gonna see my ambition through: to be the best huntsman ever! That doesn't mean I'm gonna just let you or anyone roll over me!"

"Please, this is no time to fight-!" Oriel tried in vain to protest yet again, but to no avail. Victor was moving yet again, this time firing slow and deliberate shots at Jackson. At least to the human boy that's how they were perceived as. He effortlessly dodged and evaded each shot as they rang out and glanced across wall of the cavern that missed their intended target. Jackson's face hardly changed from its taunting smile, which only fueled Victor's frustration even more.

"Damn, just hold still!" Victor called out.

"You can't hit me Vic!" Jackson challenged back to him, "You may be the strongest one of us, but I've always been the fastest and quickest!"

"You have to slip up some time..." Victor made haste in reloading Cera with a fresh clip of bullets. At the same time, Jackson had swung his Candelabra around until he stopped to aim the glowing barrel end at Victor himself. The faunus looked up in time to recognize this change in his tactics, and quickly abandoned his reloading of his weapon in respose. One foot held back behind his body, he poised himself for another charge, allowing his Semblance to empower the upper half of his body again.

"Both of you, stop this now!" Oriel on the other hand tried to leap in while waving her hands over her head. The faunus paid her protests no mind, and even less to her own form that was now at risk of being hit by his charging form. She watched in desperation as her cries were falling on deaf ears, by both of these boys. She was then forced to jump back and clear of Victor's running path. She skidded to a halt and caught herself from nearly slipping yet again to the ground like before.

Jackson on the other hand maintained his defiant stance before him. He quickly shot forth a volley of Fire-Dust blasts towards Victor. Each one was swiftly dodged left to right and his momentum was not halted in the slightest. Jackson's smiling face now sported narrowed eyes of his own; it was best that he not be right here in just a few more seconds. He then firmly planted one end of Candelabra into the ground and vaulted himself clear into the air, Victor's charging form passing him by underneath.

"Drgh-!" Victor exclaimed as he looked back behind him. That boy had dodged him yet again with his fancy tricks! His gaze turned forward again just in time to see that not only was he not stopping, but he was continuing to barrel towards the wall that his rounds had fired and missed into earlier. He tried to slow himself down, but it would not be completely enough.

A heavy crash of rocks being crushed echoed throughout the chamber. Vibrations were felt through the walls, the floor, even the very air itself. Jackson and Oriel watched as the impact point that the faunus boy had demolished had caved in a small section of wall, with rocks tumbling all around it. As the heaviest of dust began to erupt however, Victor Rataxes had jumped clear and back out into the opening and in plain sight of them.

"Victor? Are you... alright?" Oriel cautiously asked, "Can you... can you stop attacking now...?"

"Urgh, lucky dodge, human," Victor shrugged off some stray rubble from his shoulder.

"Yeah, I'm starting to side with small, orange, and cute here," Jackson said, indicating to the girl next to him, "Isn't this getting a little out of hand by now?"

"It's not over until I'm guaranteed to pass this test, which means getting me one of those-" As he spoke, and in the midst of the falling rocks that sounded behind him, a new sound suddenly could be heard ringing out. The sheer difference was completely enough to stop Victor from speaking further and even turn around. He eyed the impact zone where he himself had crashed hard into the wall. The area itself still had stray pieces of large rock that were poised to break free and fall loose, but there was something else. Something else that could be heard, and felt, from within the wall this time.

Victor unconsciously took a step back, while behind him Jackson and Oriel were taking steps towards him. All three were watching the wall in complete curiosity, and caution.

Without warning, something burst from within the wall's collapsed rock; something that was most certainly not a rock itself. A large, white rod-like object burst out from the rubble to reach out and scratch into the ground itself, forcing the trio of students to leap back.

"What? W-what is that...?!" Oriel exclaimed with barely contained terror.

"That's definitely no rock," Jackson said, squinting closer, "It looks so... white." As he spoke, another rod, identical to the first one burst from the rubble a few feet to the side. Now that these two objects were in view and next to each other, they appeared to move very slowly and deliberately, almost like that of a creature...

Sections of the wall around these two rods suddenly began to break away immediately afterward. Victor, Jackson, and Oriel were in full retreat to back as far away from the wall as they could by this point. When they turned back around, they could see that in place of the shattered rock wall, something had truly taken its place. Or rather, something was actually crawling out from within it!

The white 'rods' were joined by at least six more, and turned out to be sharpened legs that dug into the rock of the ground easily. However, in between these many legs, two stood out as having massive claws on the end of them. They dug into the ground as well and crushed more than a few rocks they managed to grab as if they were made of paper. These many appendages easily pulled forth a massive body from within the wall: a white-carapaced body that seemed to pull a massive rock along with it. Or no, the rock behind it wasn't being dragged; it was clearly lifted off of the ground. This Grimm appeared to have embedded part of its body into the rock behind it! Overall, the sharp, spiky white of this Grimm's armored body contrasted greatly with the natural, slightly darkened shade of the rock this Grimm was clearly sticking out of.

The two dark red, beady eyes of this Grimm twitched around in different directions before both settling on one direction; leveled straight at the three students in front of it. Oriel and Jackson gripped their weapons with varying levels of anxiety, and even Victor could feel a rush of something coursing through him as he gazed upon this massive Grimm foe. This feeling was made ever clearer from the slightly twitch in his own hand that tightly gripped Cera.

---

"Look there! A larger room at the end of this tunnel!" Bolin pointed out, "Could it finally lead to a more structured section of the mountain?"

"I should certainly hope so..." Arslan said, with a touch of irritation in her voice. This was only from the amount of burn she could feel within her calves from having to walk up the ascending passageways. Some more level ground would be preferable to walk on right about now. And the two of them had been traversing this barely-lit, cramped tunnel for the last ten minutes by now. Within that time they had not run across any of their fellow test-takers in any capacity. In fact, the only things they had run into were the occasional Ravager that happened to notice them. Hardly enough to warrant fear nor worry from them, but they both still needed to keep aware and alert when dealing with them. Arslan found herself grateful that her companion, Bolin Hori, at least boasted a sense of competence in both staying alert and in how he himself dispatched Grimm. She could do worse with who she was to take this test with.

The literal light at the end of their tunnel grew brighter as the two took their steps to exit. Arslan and Bolin stepped out and into a larger clearing. No longer were they standing in a cramped, confining space of the narrow tunnel, but now in a much larger place. It was a large chamber they now stood within, with rock walls and floors deliberately carved into shape. From the numerous iron railway tracks that lined the ground here and there and crisscrossed with each other, it was clear that this place was a massive converging point for whatever ran these tracks.

The two were also able to tell clearly the details of this new area thanks to the now plentiful clusters of glowing Dust crystals that practically grew from the walls. They illuminated their immediate surroundings with small glowing colors such as red, yellow, and blue.

"Ah, finally! To be out of these accursed tunnels..." Bolin said with a contented sigh, "And even better, to have reached one of Mount Everett's central chambers for offloading Dust." He indicated to the central section of the chamber with his hand, "Those are elevator shafts there; they're primarily made for carrying Dust-filled mining carts back up to the surface! With this in mind, it's highly likely that these same elevators would provide us with a means of leaving here!"

"Well, that'll be good to know," Arslan admitted, then began to walk further into the chamber and look around, "However, there is still the issue of these 'stone pieces' that we have yet to recover..." Bolin began to walk into the chamber as well, a little behind Arslan. The two had nearly reached the very center of the room when a noise drew their attention. Looking up, they quickly identified that the source of the noise came from one of the tunnels off to the side. A deep rumbling noise, also felt through the vibrations in the ground and through their feet.

"I feel it! Grimm maybe...?" Bolin said, pull forth his staff well and at the ready.

"Possibly, be ready...!" Arslan said while positioning herself into a stance. Her legs stood far apart, her right arm curled and held behind her and left arm held up and in front of her. There was not a single weapon on her person that Bolin could see. The two of them prepared themselves as the noise within slowly grew louder, prepared for whatever it may be...

Their answer came in the form of a round object, rolling and barreling straight from the dark of the tunnel in question. The two jumped back a little and away from it a little, despite being nowhere close to where it was, or where it was to end up. The round object came to a complete stop a few meters away from the tunnel it had emerged from. Rumbling continued to persist from the tunnel in question, but Arslan and Bolin's eyes remained focused on this strange, round object. Both of them looked at it in equal confusion.

"What is... wait, that looks awfully-" Arslan started as she slowly began to approach it. However, a shift in the object's shape instantly caused her to cease her own motions and shift herself into a defensive stance. The 'ball's' form uncurled itself to reveal someone was actually inside of it! A short-haired girl with terror plastered clear across her features.

"Gah-!" she exclaimed after opening her clenched eyes. Panting heavily, her head darted all around her, getting various looks at her surroundings. Arslan and Bolin blinked once, and their anxiety fading a little as realization set in.

"Miss Amarillo?" Angelita's head shot around to where she heard her voice be called. She looked upon the two figures that stood out greatly from the drab of the rock room she was in. One of them was a messy black-haired boy in a yellow robe, and the other was a dark-skinned girl with platinum blonde hair wearing a yellow half-robe with a red sash. She felt her own anxiety easing off of her a little. For one thing she was no longer in any cramped space of a tiny room!

She slowly pulled herself to her feet, while also keeping a firm grip on Anky's shaft in her right hand.

"A-Arslan? And... you..." she spoke up. Her comment earned her a look from the boy.

"Bolin Hori..." he said.

"He and I managed to meet up with each other, "Arslan spoke up and indicating between the two of them, "Did you end up alone yourself?"

"I, I was..." Angelita started, until she perked up from some realization, "Wait! Eleanor! She was right with me! I think, she was..." As she looked back over to the tunnel she had just burst out from, the three students were quickly reminded of the heavy vibrations that could be felt from within. There was no doubt from either of them that it was the sound of a tunnel collapse occurring, however that was not the only sound that could be heard. The sound of rapid footsteps, as well as a voice from within.

The entrance to the tunnel in question began to break apart as it completely collapsed. However, one figure was quick enough to not be sealed within. A tall girl burst past the collapsing wall of rock, leaping outward. She came to a rolling stop into the clearing, where everyone could get a better look at her. Eleanor Etna rose to her feet slowly, her right hand gripping her Ivorashu, and her left hand dusting herself of rock and dust that she found on her shoulders.

"Finally, I... Angelita!" she said after briefly looking around and finding the other girl. She quickly closed the distance between them, "You alright?"

"Um, yeah, I think so, now..." Angelita said. By this point both Arslan and Bolin had moved to join up with them as well.

"Man... why did you have to charge off like that?!" Eleanor said in between pants, "You move really fast... it was real hard to keep up with you!"

"Well I'm sorry, but I had to get away from that collapse somehow..." Angelita said with a shrug. Her response earned her a look from the taller girl.

"Miss Etna," Bolin said, causing her to look at him.

"Huh? Oh, more people!" she said. She took a moment to dust off some stray bits of loose debris from her Ivorashu, before hanging it back onto her back, "Well, I'm glad that more of us managed to meet up."

"What exactly were you running from?" Arslan asked, casting a glance behind at where she had come from, "Did you encounter anything, like Grimm?"

"And to have caused that collapse," Bolin added, "We didn't encounter much of any difficulty ourselves; is there something we should be concerned about encountering?"

"Oh, well, Angelita and I did encounter some Ravagers earlier on, down that same tunnel," Eleanor indicated to the pathway in question, "But other than that, they were the only Grimm that we had to deal with."

"She blasted us through that tunnel with her Semblance though," Angelita added. This was met with a flustered Eleanor blushing red in the face, and stumbling over words to say in response.

"You... have a strong Semblance too...?" Arslan spoke with genuine query to Eleanor. The taller girl's face calmed down a little upon seeing this, and even calmed down herself a little to talk better.

'Hm, not exactly what I was expecting, I'll admit,' Bolin thought to himself as he watched the three girls converse. Quick, passing mental obeservations were made about them as he looked them over, 'But, I suppose the four of us should make an adequate enough team. Don't know anything about that 'Angelita' girl though, but Miss Altan and Etna here will more than balance that out! Yeah, this will all go perfectly!'

"Honestly, I just wanna get out of here already!" Angelita spoke up suddenly, "I've had enough being down here, in these dark, small spaces..."

"Oh yeah... well, don't worry! We'll figure out a way to get out of here-" Eleanor started to reassure her, until her attention was drawn to something, "Huh...? Do you... Does anyone else hear that?"

"Hear what?" Bolin asked. He focused his hearing into the silence when the three of them silenced themselves. It was then that they could hear it: a small noise producing a faint echo throughout the room they stood in. A noise that could be heard coming... from one of the surrounding tunnels. This tunnel itself was situated well up higher into the wall, with plenty of distance between it and the ground below. There could also be seen a set of railroad tracks broken off at the end, nearly cut off in line with where the tunnel itself merged with the larger chamber. The sound itself was similar to when Eleanor had emerged from her tunnel. However, one striking difference between that and what could be heard here was... there were two voices. Two screaming voices that gradually grew louder...

The four on the ground watched two more figures burst out into the opening. Two humans, both with brightly shaded hair, soared through the air nearly at the same time.

Both were also positioned on strange vehicles, for lack of better word to describe them. The girl with the bright-mint colored hair spilling out from her darker colored hoodie stood with both feet upon a floating board. It had no wheels at all attached to it, yet she was very much soaring through the air as if she was in full control and riding upon it. This was clearly shown in her facial expressions, as she was completely laughing with a massive grin on the entire way.

The boy on the other hand could not be anymore opposite to the girl. He was inside of a mining cart, even as it was in the process of bursting out of the tunnel and sailing forward through the air off of the disconnected railroad tracks. The upper half of his body be seen within the cart, one that definitely looked like it belonged here in this mine. He had a shade of pink hair atop the central portion of his head himself. Unlike the girl however, the expression on his face was one of over-the-top terror. His fingers could be seen gripping the front edges of cart. The sounds that could be heard from his mouth were rather high-pitched screams.

"What... in... Remnant...?" Arslan breathed. She and the other three simply watched as these two practically sailed out and in the air before their very eyes. The laughing girl was aiming herself and her floating board to float parallel with the wall that she was approaching. She was now 'boarding' along it with complete ease, even as she was beginning to make her diagonal descent back down to the ground.

"That's... IT!" the boy on the other hand could be heard shouting. In the middle of his much graceless aerial traversal, he ducked himself lower into the cart until the top of his head couldn't be seen anymore. The people on the ground watching were suddenly alerted to this sudden action, especially Eleanor.

"Nadir!" she exclaimed, finding herself glancing back to those she stood with, "What should we do? Should we help him?"

"Wait-! Look!" Arslan suddenly pointed out. Looking back out, Nadir's full body suddenly shot itself out completely from inside the cart. The two were completely separated as the cart continued to fly through the air and crash into the wall in front of it with a massive boom and a cloud of dust. Nadir on the other hand was travelling a much different trajectory. He was now flying downward much faster towards the ground, a strange bladed weapon in his grip. The sounds that could be heard coming from his mouth were no longer screams of terror, but more of over-blown determination, even as he neared the ground. At the last moment, he curved himself forward to spin in midair and come to a skidding halt in a kneeling position on the ground. The four already on the ground took a step back as he skidded closer to them, as well as in his forward motion he almost lost his footing and stumbled forward. He finally came to a complete stop, and pulled himself to his feet completely.

"Whew...! Never, again!" he exclaimed, shaking his arms free of dust from the ground, "I am staying well away from mining carts so long as I- Oh, hey there..." He stopped his personal rant as he had looked up and noticed he was no longer alone. The four students on the ground looked at him with wildly varying looks, such as Bolin shaking his head with a smile.

At this point, the other girl on her hoverboard had floated over and came to a slower halt right near them as well. Her laughing had toned down a little, but her face still wore an expression of wild, untamed joy.

"Man, talk about making an entrance!" she said to him, "Did you really just 'kick' yourself out of that cart while in mid-air? Never thought you would actually stick the landing though!"

"Well, it's not like I was trying to, Reese!" Nadir defended himself, "And thanks a lot for all the help you gave me back there; really helpful!"

"No prob!" Reese replied with closed eyes and a thumbs up.

"Nadir? What just happened...?" Eleanor spoke. The boy looked at the taller girl, as well as the other three students she stood grouped with.

"Oh hey, Eleanor! You're here as well?" the pink-haired boy shook his head with a sigh, "Let's just say, it's been rough going for me ever since I was 'dropped' into these tunnels!"

"Oh yeah- I can personally vouch for him; the 'dropped in' part, anyway!" Reese chimed in.

"Which somehow transitioned to you 'procuring' a Dust mining cart?" Arslan asked, each word causing Nadir to cringe a little more, "A rather... clumsy way, to make an entrance..."

"Whatever! Alright?!" Nadir exclaimed, "I'm here now, on solid ground, and fully prepared to stay that way! No more riding carts for me!" He finished off his little tirade by turning around to look around at his surroundings. His right hand sported his weapon that he held to his side, a blade held retracted into the base of this gun-looking weapon. His display earned him various looks from the girls, with Reese sporting her usual biggest grin out of them.

Bolin on the other hand regarded this display with a subtle shaking of his head.

'Figures it'd be too much to run into him- or, I guess either of those two...' he mentally noted as he looked over at the girl, Reese Chloris, he recalled her name from before. Where to begin with this one? Her attire? Her equipment? Her attitude? Did this fool somehow skip out on primary school and jump ahead here somehow? 'Ah well, let them be on some other team; Miss Altan and Miss Etna here will suffice already, along with this Amarillo girl, if that is how it must be.'

He loudly cleared his throat to grab everyone's attention, "Well, as amusing as this has been, there is still another outstanding issue of finding these... 'stone fragments' ."

"Finding stone? I'd say we're in the right place it!" Reese said, looking all around herself, "For finding stone in a mountain! How the heck are we ever gonna find them?!"

"Well, they can't be that hard to spot, right?" Nadir said, turning back around, "You all remember how kinda grayish in color they were? Not like the tan color of rock around here. And their edges- they were straight-edged along one side, with jagged cuts along another. Look around, rocks and Dust from inside a mountain like this aren't perfectly cut!" The others listened to Nadir's explanation. The more they listened, the more their looks began to change from what they had before. More raised eyebrows and tilted heads, he was making sense, if by a little bit.

"Very astute observations," Bolin even spoke up, "Yet that still doesn't zero in on where they might be now." His response earned him a narrow-eyed look from Nadir in return.

"Well still! It's something to keep in mind, right?" Eleanor quickly cut in, before either of them could escalate anything, "Let's just look around; they could even be in this big chamber area for all we know!" She herself took a few steps away to turn and look at the surrounding rock area herself. Angelita did the same thing as well, though with an additional grumble under her breath that was unintelligible for anyone else to understand.

With a shrug, Arslan broke away to search as well. This situation was not ideal, but both Nadir and Eleanor had points; finding these 'pieces' was just as much a part of their test as leaving this mountain. There was also 'who' they'd be leaving it with, but that would be a thought for a different time.

As she walked to the side wall to investigate herself, she caught sight of her fellow test-takers from out of the corner of her eye. Angelita and Eleanor stuck close to each other as they searched around the various Dust clusters, while Bolin and Nadir were both separate as they conducted their own searches. Now that she thought about it, most of these peoples' combat prowess had yet to be demonstrated, herself included. There had been little to no encounters of Grimm in the past thirty minutes or so. Which meant at this point all that was left to judge these people by were first impressions by visuals and attitudes. By those alone, there wasn't that much different from what she had first seen during yesterday's orientation...

Movement out of the corner of her eye caused her to turn her head. Reese stood off to the side and by herself. At first glance she appeared to be hunched over to study a pile of rocks before her. She then picked one up in her hand to look closer at it. She inspected it for a few seconds, then with a shrug, tossed it straight up into the air. As it came back down, she gripped her hovering board weapon with both hands and smacked it away from her. The resounding impact echoed throughout the entire chamber as the rock itself sailed across the room as well, clattering to the ground.

"Strike!" she exclaimed to herself, "Or wait- no no, that was definitely a strike. I striked it!" This entire display, combined with that strange, childish grin she kept plastered over her face, caused Arslan to almost sigh loudly in annoyance.

"How is what you're doing there productive to what needs to be done?" she pried. Her questioning seemed to grab Reese's attention. The mint-colored girl looked up to stare at the platinum blonde and her crossed arms.

"Um, well, that wasn't the rock we were looking for, so..." Reese shrugged herself before turning back down to resume looking. Arslan continued to stare at this outrageous girl, almost incredulously. With another sigh and a shake of her head, she turned back to investigate the rocks she stood before as well. Was it really this easy for just anyone to apply to Haven these days...?

The searching among the six students carried on for a few minutes more. Unfortunately, none of them were having much luck in finding these rock pieces, despite Nadir's claim that they'd be easy to spot. After a few moments, one voice spoke up to break the silence.

"Anybody else think it's kinda strange?" Angelita's voice spoke up.

"What is?" Eleanor asked.

"Us. How we all managed to meet one other person in this mountain," she said, "You know, instead of ending up completely alone, we all ended up finding someone along the way."

"Oh yeah... yeah, that does seem... coincidental..." Eleanor agreed. At the same time, Angelita threw away another rock that was deemed the incorrect one to what was required, "Guess we should be thankful we found each other..."

"I wonder where the others ended up?" she continued.

"Oh, that reminds me! Me and Reese here, we actually ran into two other people from where we came from," Nadir spoke up.

"You met other people?" Bolin stopped his searching and looked back up, "That isn't something you should have deliberated on telling. Who was it?"

"I'm sorry if I didn't get a good look, alright?" Nadir fired back, "And yeah, I couldn't see who it was. One of them seemed to just fly in front of us with some weird pack thing..."

"With metal-looking wings?" Reese added.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure they were," Nadir nodded to Reese, "Guess you got a better look than I did?"

"A better look back then, as well as right now! Check it out!" Reese suddenly pointed her finger out. Nearly everyone ceased what they were doing to look up at where she pointed. She indicated to the tunnel entrance that she and Nadir had exited out of. Before was empty with nothing there, but that quickly changed within seconds.

A figure burst out from the darkness of the tunnel, practically flying straight through the air. In fact, she was flying through the air! Gail Nacht soared straight on and forward until just as quickly, she jerked herself to a sudden halt in mid air.

"What the- you're all here?!" she called out, looking down upon them.

"Gail?" Angelita said.

"Gail!" Eleanor exclaimed, "There you are! We were wondering what had happened-"

"There's no time! They're coming! Right behind us!" Gail cut her off while pointing the tip of her Cadenza back at the tunnel entrance. Everyone was put on alert now as they looked back at the dark hole. Sure enough, after listening in close enough, sounds could be heard echoing from within, steadily growing louder.

"What's coming? What did you bring with you?" Bolin asked.

"And what did you mean by 'us'?" Arslan asked.

"Huh- Oh Brothers! How could I-?!" Gail shook her head hard as she very quickly recalled. She turned back to hover closer to the tunnel entrance. The sounds within were definitely growing louder now, "Liz! Liz! Are you still back there-?"

"AHHHHH!" a new voice exclaimed from within the darkness. In an instant, Gail flew straight backwards to put distance between herself and the noise. This also allowed for something else to burst from the tunnel entrance. As opposed to Gail who flew straight outward and maintained her height above the ground, Liz Viridian practically dove out and into the open. Her arms extended outward, both of her Kaginawa Tsume suddenly burst from her arms to latch onto a nearby underground root that broke through the wall. It latched on effortlessly, allowing the faunus girl to swing across the length of the room. Her weapon dislodged from the root and retracted its way back to her at the same time she jumped off to land on a nearby ledge on the opposite end of the chamber.

By now all eyes were refocused on the tunnel that four students had just exited from. Because at that very moment, something completely new was pouring through it into the open. A pack of Centinels erupted outward, curving and twisting in all directions as they entered the room. They chittered and clicked loudly from their clicking mandibles. Whenever their sharpened legs made contact with something solid beneath them, they abandoned their outward twisting approach to instead crawl along their flattened surfaces. This resulted in them crawling up along the walls all around, while some were approaching the ground itself. The eight students found themselves gathering closer together as they watched this unfold, with even Liz and Gail returning to the ground as well.

"So these are Grimm?" Reese could be heard saying, "Why didn't anyone tell me they look like big, bug things?"

"Oh, this is just perfect..." Bolin said before throwing a look in Gail and Liz's direction, "Just what have you brought upon us?"

"Hey, don't you start with me!" Liz shot back, "This was in no way my fault!"

"Um guys? Let's focus on them, yeah?" Nadir spoke up, redirecting everyone's attention upon the Centinel pack.

"He's right; focus up, everyone!" Arslan's voice rang out. Her tone was completely no-nonsense, somehow even more so than she already had been. She spoke with pure authority, allowing no more dissent among them to break out, "We're easier targets for them all grouped together like this; so pick your targets and scatter!" Without waiting for any replies from her fellows, Arslan broke away from the group. Slowly but surely, the other seven students did the same thing and broke away in different directions.

Arslan charged forward with her arms trailing behind her. Before her were two side-winding centinels approaching her just as quickly. One of them suddenly curved inward to strike at her side, with the other one doing the same opposite-wise. In a single motion, she corkscrewed her body to let it fly straight over one of them as it dove in but missed her. In that single motion she also planted her fist down hard on it, while also letting one of her feet kick the other centinel in midair. With her forward momentum still going, she found herself back on to the ground where she flipped herself back onto her feet.

Arslan then wasted no time in assuming her fighting stance; sliding her right foot back, cocking her right fist at her side, and holding her left hand and fingers out and at the ready. She saw the two centinels she had just dealt her blows upon; the one on the ground was buried a little into cracked rock and struggling to free itself, while the one in the air made twitching movements as if it were dazed. Her dual counterattack had landed true it seemed. However, there were still a number of centinels besides them that were still on her.

A trio of them actually curved around each other, almost as a singular unit. As one, and with a massive cacophony of clicking, clattering noises, they dove towards her position. Their many mandibles could be seen gnashing from their mouth areas. But Arslan herself stood fast and in place. There were too many in that unit for any of her lighter attacks, which meant they all had to be dealt with at once. A concentrated blast with her Semblance should do the trick.

She slid her right foot back and cocked her right fist back as well, allowing her Aura to build up. In the middle of her concentration and the centinels' approach however, she felt something near to her. A thudding sound. For an instant she thought one of her fellow students had been knocked away and landed next to her. That would only inconvenience her with knowing that she'd have to stop and save them-

No, that wasn't the case. A look out of the corner of her eye, and she could see that Eleanor Etna was there. Not only not knocked down, but actually standing nearly back to back with her, while facing the same centinels! What was she doing?

It didn't matter, the centinels before her were of primary concern again, and her charged Semblance would meet them head on. Quite literally if need be.

The trio of Grimm were now no more than a foot away from her when she thrust her fist out. She could feel her Aura-charged fist dealing a great deal of damage to the Grimm. Looking straight at them, perhaps it was working a little too well...?

In fact, the centinels seemed to get blown away under strange effects; from the familiar heat flame she was used to seeing, but also from some strange, very obvious crack marks that rapidly formed upon their bodies. As they flew backward, the now disembodied Grimm practically disintegrated in mid-air, even before touching the ground!

For once, genuine shock and even amazement appeared across Arslan's face, in the form of her eyes widening. Incredible! Had her Semblance evolved to such a degree?

It was then however that she looked over to Eleanor, holding a stance very similar to her own. Her own arm held an outstretched palm however as opposed to her closed fist, yet her own face was a mirror of her own surprise as well.

"Unbelievable!"

"Was that 'your' Semblance-?!"

Both found themselves asking identical questions at the same time. In spite of herself, Arslan found herself tilting her head with a smirk. Never once in her life had she met someone with a Semblance so similar to her own! This would definitely make things more interesting-

The chittering and scratching of spiked feet on rocks broke up any further attempts at speaking. Both girls were reminded of a new wave of centinels that were about to bear down on them where the previous bunch had fallen.

"Let's... take care of them first?" Eleanor said, hefting her massive white axe in her arm towards them.

"Agreed," Arslan nodded, then resumed her stance. Shop-talking would come later; there was work to be done.

Elsewhere in the chamber, Reese was riding McFly around. Dodging and weaving these spiky creatures, once or twice they actually came close to striking at her while she was moving. A little too close for comfort actually. Still, there was no doubt in her mind that she was the fastest compared to them-

She felt a whoosh right next to her, and for a moment she thought one of them had tried to blindside her. However, looking into her blind spot showed her that it wasn't one of those centinels, but some round, rolling object that had rolled past her. Actually, it was rolling really fast! So fast that she watched it pop a little off the ground to bash one of the Grimm monsters right in its mouth! The centinel was blown back, tooth fragments raining through the air, and the once 'ball' opened back up to show that it was actually that one girl, Angelita! She could do that?! Roll herself into a ball and bash stuff? So that's what that weird back-thing she wore was for!

Reese's head suddenly shot forward, just in time to see that one of these ugly centinels was already right in front of her! A quick twist of her feet on McFly and she'd be well out of- Or wait, she could evade this thing, or she could pull off that really cool move she just saw Angelita there do! How hard could it be? Just bash its head with the flat of McFly; easy!

She ducked her legs low and at the right moment she jumped herself and her hoverboard in the air. The centinel itself had lurched its body upwards to strike at her, while she also pulled McFly further up and held on to it with one hand. This would totally be a piece of cake!

For a moment, McFly did in fact hit the centinel square in the face. However, Reese was not prepared for the central force the Grimm still had pressing forward at the same time! It was a little more than her own, and she felt herself being pushed backward as a result. Reese's eyes widened a little, and her stomach within lurched a little. This was going to go horribly, wasn't it?

Reese's world soon tumbled all around her. She couldn't see what was happening in the span of a few seconds. In fact, what she did hear was her name being called out by someone; Angelita by the sound of it. She finally felt herself come to a tumbling roll with her legs and rear end screaming in pain. In between her own winces of pain, she was able to refocus on the world around her, and what had just happened. That same centinel that had struck at her was ignoring her, and by now going after Angelita instead-

Reese's eyes suddenly widened in surprise, and horror. Her gaze had drifted away and down from the centinel and closer to her feet, where something else lay. McFly was in fact there, however it was not whole. it lay in two halves, two perfectly cut halves at her feet.

"No... No!" Reese exclaimed as she scrambled towards the pieces. This was one of the best things she'd ever had, before leaving Mantle! Her best buddy she could rely on that helped her pull off stylish moves! And now it was gone? "No, McFly, don't tell me you're really..."

The instant Reese reached out to grab one of the McFly halves, something happened. She took hold of the inner half of McFly, the blades away from her, when they seemed to change shape. The metallic pieces of the once hoverboard folded in on each other, the two blades meeting side by side with each other, until finally the changing stopped. What Reese now held in her very hand was not one half of her best friend ever, but a sweet looking pistol!

"Holy... Brothers! What the heck?!" Reese's horror and despair instantly reformed into surprise, and then into a strange sense of giddiness and excitement. She twisted her wrist to look this new weapon all over. It was the same neon looking color as what McFly usually looked like. The blades themselves even were situated at the underside of this pistol's barrel!

She quickly reached over and took hold of the other half of McFly, only to be greeted with that end reforming itself as well. In both her hands she now held two identical pistols with blades on the end of them! Since when could McFly do this of all things?! Since just now probably.

"Oh, so wicked...!" she said to herself. The sounds of battle brought her back to reality, and she looked back up. She could see that Angelita was currently locked in battle with a centinel. The back-armored girl was swinging her mace-looking weapon all around in front of her, using it to deflect mandible strikes the Grimm tried to throw at her. It was probably the same one that had chopped her hoverboard in half! Well this time, she'd be letting that thing have it, with both barrels!

She quickly rose up to her feet and fired off these guns straight at the Grimm's body. The rounds for the most part ricocheted off of the stark white carapace-like armor, with only a few of them managing to pierce the fleshy black of the body. Each shot that struck true earned a squeal of pain and recoil from the creature. As it turned its head to try and find its new assailant, Angelita took advantage of its momentary distraction. With both hands gripping Anky she smashed the mace-head end as hard as she could against the frontal underside of the centinel. The Grimm was sent to the ground with its spiked feet thrashing above it to reorient itself. However both Angelita and Reese were already upon it. Reese fired off a couple rounds into the Grimm's exposed belly, while Angelita finished it off with a point-blank shot from the shotgun end of Anky, directly into its head.

Within seconds, the centinel had completely disintegrated and scattered to small ashes. A moment to catch their breaths, both girls were now panting while looking at each other.

"Thanks for that..." Angelita said, "You alright?"

"Well aside from my sore rear end, never better," Reese said. She then held up her two new weapons in her hands, "Actually, really never better! That big Grimm there totally showed me something new about McFly!"

"Wait, what?" Angelita asked, thoroughly confused, "What are you talking about-?" Her line of questioning was cut short as another centinel appeared to try and blindside her. In a quick motion she spun her body so the mandibles of the Grimm bounced completely off of Derma, leaving its trajectory completely altered. She then used that same spinning motion to pound against it with Anky, knocking it away. Angelita then curled up into her ball form and rolled off to capitalize on the impact she'd just made.

Reese on the other hand simply shrugged from their conversation being rudely cut short. Another of these centinels could be heard to her side, but she was totally ready for it this time! She ducked her upper body out of the way, and while the centinel's body was exposed, she stabbed the two blades of her 'McGuns' into its exposed black flesh, and pulled the triggers. The centinel cried out in pain and jerked itself free of the weapons. It fell to the side and slowly began to die, disintegration starting to take effect at the point-blank bullet entries. Reese smirked at her own quick thinking and moved to take on another one. One question did linger on her mind as she moved however: could these 'McGuns' somehow reform into McFly again?

At another section of the chamber, Nadir, Liz, and Bolin were locked in their own section of combat. Each one was armed with their melee weapons and facing down any Grimm before them. Liz and Nadir's weapons were sharpened and edged, while Bolin's staff Jin Yu was much more blunt. Nevertheless, his strikes hit just as hard against the white armored plates of any centinel that dared to get to close to him.

These blasted centinels were giving him a decent workout, he had to admit. They were forcing him to perform more evasive maneuvers such as sharp twisting and turning. Occasionally he would get a strike or even a deflecting kick of his own.

He quickly caught sight of them suddenly lunge from above with the clear intent of striking downward upon his position. Bolin moved quickly to backflip onto one hand in a straight backwards motion. The centinel crashed into the rock he stood upon, but instead of being halted, the boy saw that the Grimm had in fact burrowed straight through the ground. This caused him to frown; now not only were there a couple more centinels above ground to contend with, but there was one below him in the ground that he'd have no way of tracking. There had to be a way to...

His gaze suddenly drifted to his side, and Bolin was quickly reminded of where exactly he was standing. In his backwards flipping motion, he had now found himself closer against the wall behind him. Right next to him sprouted a small cluster of Dust Crystals, glowing a rich yellow color all around them.

'Lightning Dust!' he thought to himself, 'This might just even the odds!' His movements were again one quick motion: he twisted his body to allow Jin Yu to cleave straight through the top section of one of the protruding crystals. As the Dust piece was spinning in midair, he used the continuing forward motion of his foot to kick the piece out and straight forward.

Meanwhile the centinel in question that had its head stuck in the ground finally managed to loosen itself. As it pulled its head loose and back up into the air, the sharp, Dust crystal flew straight forward and embedded itself into the fleshy insides of its open mouth-part.

The effect was immediate: visible currents of yellow electricity erupted through the centinel's body from the point of first contact. The Grimm let out a series of violent clicking in response, as well as spastic twitching of all of its outward extremities. With a final burst of yellow light, the body of the centinel practically exploded into yellow lightning and black flakes.

There were two other centinels nearby to the recently downed one, with the one above ground paying absolutely no mind to its comrade's death. It immediately twisted along the ground towards Bolin's position, completely ignoring the position where the previous centinel perished.

Bolin rushed forward with his staff trailing in hand behind him. He closed in on the centinel, right as the Grimm prepared to strike at him. He whacked the head with one end of his staff, throwing it off of its intended path, then finished it off quickly with a swift jab with the other end into an exposed section underneath its lower mouth carapace. The centinel gave a quick shriek of pain, then was quickly silenced soon after.

As the body began to disintegrate, Bolin took note of the rumbling of the ground right next to him. It was then that he was instantly reminded of that one underground centinel as well! He quickly dislodged his staff to have at the ready, unfortunately he was not quick enough.

The ground at his side burst apart, with the last centinel's body erupting out and straight upon him. With no means of counterattacking this sudden movement, Bolin held out his staff in front of him to catch the centinel's mouth in place.

His teeth gritted, his feet slowly skidding in place, and his squinted eyes fixed upon the ugly Grimm creature bearing down upon him. Those many pincers that made its mouth section slashed all around, trying to slice at his human flesh. All it could managed though was the smallest bit of scratching upon his staff, which Bolin took no pleasure in knowing was happening at all. Still, it was a small relief to know that his own body was being spared from being bitten into-

Just then, in between his focused efforts, his eyes caught sight of something before him. Looking closer, he was certain he could see something... inside the centinel's mouth!

"What the...?" he managed. It was a small, gray object, contrasting greatly with the natural black, white, and red that comprised a centinel's body colors. A few more moments of study, and Bolin's eyes widened. There was just no way, no way it could actually be that simple!

"Hey! Here!" the boy suddenly heard a new voice. He spared a little bit of concentration to look out to where that voice had come from. He could see that one flying girl, Gail Nacht, soaring through the air and straight towards him and his foe! In her hand held that blade colored a glowing orange. She passed over the centinel's body, and in an instant, all motions it was making were completely halted. The forward mandibles froze in place, and the extremities on the lower body completely slumped. Bolin could feel the relief of pressure lifted off of his front as the centinel died. As it disintegrated however, he reached on his hands in to grab this strange object he'd seen. He then yanked it free of the centinel's head, allowing it and the body to fade completely away.

A brief moment of reprieve allowed him to examine the object of interest he now held in his hand. It was definitely gray in color, and almost square-shaped. Most striking about it were how two of its edges were completely straight, while the other two sides appeared more jagged. Something was definitely meant to 'fit' into those jagged sections! This, combined with the strange, yet familiar insignia seen on the top of the item. There was no denying it; one of the pieces of the control stone was here in his hand!

Bolin looked up as a different sound drew his attention. Gail had flown closer to the ground and gently landed her feet next to him.

"Oh! You found one too?!" she asked.

"Yes, I did," Bolin replied, holding up his piece in front of them, "I managed to pull it from-"

"-inside the Grimm's mouth!" both he and Gail finished each other's sentence with the exact same response. Widened eyes looked at each other. Gail also drew her free hand to reveal a similar object in her own palm. Just like his own, there were sets of jagged edges, unmistakable in that it fit with another piece of its kind.

Both Bolin and Gail sported knowing smiles at each other. Then then broke away to rejoin the other conflicts.

Gail flew through the air, moving fast to prevent anything from grabbing her. These were centinels, which probably weren't likely to grab her from the air, but she wasn't about to test that theory. Better she keep her distance, until she was ready to introduce them to Cadenza at least.

And just as well, she needed to get the word to the others; these control stone pieces were 'inside' these Grimm mouths! They'd been eating them?!

Gail shook her head hard, not wanting her mind to wonder why that would ever be with them. All that mattered was getting to them. Which as of now meant getting to her fellow test takers!

"Hey! You all here!" she called out, pulling to hovering position in front of Nadir and Liz, "You both found any pieces of control stones yourselves?"

"Little busy here!" Liz called out. She was currently locked in close quarters combat with a centinel. The Grimm's spiked bodies and mandibles twitched feverishly as it jabbed repeatedly at the faunus girl. Each time she was able to deflect the strikes with parries from her own claw weapons, with clanging sounds resonating throughout the entire chamber.

On the other hand, Nadir was also holding his own against a centinel before him. In his hand he held a weapon with a base that sported a straight, lengthened blade. He slashed back and forth at the centinel in front of him, more noticeably on the offensive compared to Liz. The Grimm before him was sporting a few deep cuts in its frontal legs and mandibles in the process.

In between his slashes, he glanced out of the corner of his eye at Gail, "Sorry! Haven't seen any control stones here-"

"Listen to me!" Gail insisted. Her flight back instantly sprouted its wings as she propelled herself forward and in the air again, "It's their mouths! Look inside their mouths for pieces!" To her credit, this time the other two actually returned completely head-turns at that comment. They both looked at her in astonishment.

"They're what? In their mouths!?" Liz exclaimed. Gail however was not affording anymore talk in between her flight. Her path already was taking her straight towards the two of them, but up and over completely. Liz and Nadir watched as she cleaved her blade straight through one of the centinels that was trying to launch down upon them from above. The entire body crumbled to black dust. However, in addition to black dust falling, another object tumbled down as well, and straight into Liz's hand.

She held the object in between her and Nadir; the unmistakable color and shape fragment of one of the control stones was right here in her hand! Gail was right!

Nadir smiled as he was about to say something, until his eyes widened in surprise, "Whoa! Look out!" he cried out as he looked straight behind her. His Yamato reshaped itself in his hands into that of its assault rifle form, as Liz spun around. The centinel that she was fighting just now was preparing to strike at her again!

Holding her hand that gripped the stone back and behind her, she used her other hand to swipe in front of her and produce a Scaleshield. The transparent field projected before her head in an instant from the path of her palm, and the centinel's strike path was thrown off course after striking it.

This in turn left the Grimm to now soar straight up, producing its unguarded belly above them. Nadir quickly capitalized on this; he held a clenched fist close to his chest, allowing his pink Floweriken to materialize in between his fingers. He then swung his arm out and allowed his newly made Semblance projectiles to fly outward. Each one scored direct hits into the black, unguarded flesh of the centinel. The creature clicked its mandibles in pain as its body was sent flying to the ground, belly side up. It wiggled its sharpened legs around frantically, trying to reorient itself onto its legs. But Nadir was moving again, aiming his Yamato at the creature and completely unloading into it. The centinel's cries were quickly silenced as its body was disintegrated with ease.

And just like the previous Grimm that Gail had slain, this one too revealed a stone fragment at where the head once was. Once the body was completely gone, he rushed over and grabbed the piece into his hand. This one held two straight edges connected to each other, with the other two edges looking much more jagged.

"Ah, nice!" he said, gripping the stone piece in his hand, "That's part of my test completed!" He turned back around to watch as Liz was completely finishing off the centinel that he had been fighting. Two well placed claw strikes from her weapons had completely torn through the creature's natural armor. She then finished it off by shooting into the exposed creature's chest area from her weapons' claws flipping backwards. The centinel was completely eradicated from the blows, and the two were finally given a moment to catch their breaths.

With Gail, she continued to fly around the chamber's perimeter, slashing at any centinel she could get close to. From her increased view of the land with her height in the air, she felt a sense of pride in herself: the centinels' numbers were thinning! They were almost done! There probably only a few more of these Grimm left to kill. And from the quick looks of her fellow test takers, everyone else was faring rather well in combat. Surprisingly, even Reese was! She was now swinging that bladed board of hers against her foe and landing some strong hits on it!

Refocusing on her own flight, she found she was zeroing in on a lone centinel. The Grimm itself twitched his head as it noticed her, then twisted its body almost unnaturally just to lunge at her while she was still in the air! Watching just how this thing contorted its body the way it does just to reach her nearly made her cringe, but Gail shook off that feeling just as quickly as it came. She held Cadenza forward, the air rushing against it producing a free-flow of different tonal sounds.

The centinel lunged at her as simply as predicted, which Gail easily flew around to avoid. As she did so, she struck hard and precisely, making sure to slice her blade where the soft black of the creature was exposed. Her strikes landed true, each one creating a burning effect in addition to slashing effect due to Cadenza's orange, fire-Dust enhancement. The centinel also clicked in pain with each strike taken, trying in vain to twist around to catch the elusive flying human.

Finally, after one too many twisting attempts, the exhausted centinel was forced onto its back. Its sharp, pointed legs barely were wiggling that much any more, which was all the invitation Gail needed. She landed on top of the Grimm's exposed underbelly, sinking in Cadenza all the way up to nearly the hilt. The centinel lurched on more time with a throated cry, but was quickly silenced, followed by its body disintegrating.

With a smile, Gail pulled herself back to her feet and her Cadenza back to her side. This was hardly taking any effort on her part, slaying these centinels! True this one here didn't yield any new control stone fragments, but that didn't really matter to her; she already had hers! There still remained the matter of everyone else needing to find one for themselves.

On that note, she looked up and around to get a good look at the battle field and what was happening.

Angelita could be seen unfurling herself from that ball-form of hers right after having bashed a centinel's head with it. While the two of them were in a downward motion, the short-haired girl planted her feet firmly down on the centinel's underbelly as they both crashed to the ground. She also finished off with both hands gripping that mace-like weapon of hers and bringing it down hard upon the centinel's head again. The white armor carapace was no match for the sheer force of the blow, and the centinel was quickly dispatched.

Nearby Reese was seen delivering a well-placed horizontal slash at the centinel in front of her with the blades of her hoverboard; 'McFly' she called it. The centinel was downed like all the others, but the purple-hooded girl simply jumped back on her board and cruised around the chamber again, leaving the centinel she was just fighting to slowly writhe in place.

Eleanor had just finished off a pair of centinels with two well placed swings with her massive white axe. The weapon sliced through their armored bodies with ease, and they were left to disintegrate almost instantly.

Arslan on the other hand demonstrated a little more brutality with her Grimm foe. She was standing upon its back, had a firm grip on a couple of its front mandibles, and was pulling its head straight up and towards her. The centinel's exposed mouth parts wiggled feebly as it struggled in vain against her grip. The back armor plates on its back groaned and creaked as they rubbed against each other; its physiology was obviously not designed for it to ever bend in this way. The human girl on the other hand maintained a look of hardened determination, with one eye squinting and her gritted teeth exposed and barred.

After a few more seconds of straining, the centinel's body positively broke in half. Arslan hastily threw away the now motionless broken half she held in her hands, and jumped off of the centinel's shattered back. Both pieces disintegrated into fine black and white dust, scattering to the natural tan dust of the cave chamber behind her.

And with that, all was completely quiet. Looking all around, no more centinels could be seen. In fact, no more Grimm of any kind could be seen. Just the eight test-takers remained. Eight test-takers with little to no injuries by the looks of things.

"WOOO! Alright!" Reese openly declared after hovering to the center of the chamber. She flipped off of McFly to show-off a hand-stand before flipping herself back onto her feet with a massive grin, "What a rush! So, anybody else alive?"

"We're all still alive, obviously," Angelita flatly responded. Her and the other students made their way to Reese's location.

"A decent exercise... though I'd prefer it if that would be the last of them," Bolin said, casting a sideways glance in Gail and Liz's direction, "That's also assuming there aren't anymore that were brought here..." He was met with the pouting glares of both girls in response.

"And I said before don't you even start with me! You think I asked for those Grimm? Heck, me or Gail?" she shot back, with a hand indicating between her and the human girl. Gail's look turned to one of surprise, not at all expecting that sort of defense on her behalf, from her of all people.

"Hmph, at least you can fight, if adequately," Bolin returned her challenge with a smirk. His comment only seemed to fuel Liz's frustration.

"Alright, come on guys!" Eleanor quickly cut in, "We shouldn't be worrying about how those Grimm got here. Let's just be glad that we killed them all, and that we survived!"

"Yes, that!" Nadir agreed, "I for one am very glad that we've all gotten out of this with our lives! I mean, how many centinels did we all just take down? A dozen? Two dozen?"

"Probably took down like a hundred of them myself!" Reese cockily commented, "I know I know, I'll let you sign McFly later-!"

"Ahem," everyone's attention was directed to Arslan, who had her hand raised up and snapping her fingers, "You also seem to be forgetting possibly the principal reason we're here in the first place..." She lowered her hand to fish into her side pouch, retrieving a familiar object. Her version of the control stone fragment was almost square-shaped. It held two completely straight, perfectly cut sides joined at a right angle, with the other two appearing more jagged and haphazardly cut. Now that it was held before them without any external distractions, the students could see that this piece held an image on the top of it. Or rather, whatever the image was only a partial piece. The platinum blonde looked back up and and around at everyone, "I assume everyone else found one for themselves?"

"Yep-o! Got mine here!" Reese declared, pulling out a fragment of her own. Everyone else one at a time brought forth their pieces to bear before everyone. Reese looked down at her piece with a tilted head, "Huh, whole lotta work for such a tiny thing."

"The whole reason we're here in the first place..." Eleanor said, then looked up at everyone, "Who our pieces match against also determine who we'll be teamed up with! Well? These were obviously meant to be 'put together', so, let's put 'em together!"

"Wait," Arslan suddenly spoke up. Everyone stopped in their tracks to look at her. Her tone was commanding, but it held no strict edge to it. This wasn't a command to completely cease against what Eleanor said, "Before we do this... I want to say something."

"Huh? What is it?" Angelita asked.

"Yeah, what is it?" Liz said as well. Arslan took a swift breath before continuing.

"I just want to let you all know that despite my earlier... observations..." she said, "that no matter the outcome of what we do here, no matter what teams that end up being formed between whom... That it was... a pleasure, to have fought alongside you all," she drew her gaze across to look at every single person in front of her, "You've all shown grit and determination in your own ways, and that at the very least is something that earns my respect." Her small speech was actually met with a few smiles all around, mostly from the boys and a few of the girls.

"Oh, well, thanks I guess," Liz said, "I did see you all fight as well. For humans you fight pretty well too."

"I'll take that as a compliment," Nadir replied to Liz, then turned to Arslan, "Except, why do you make it sound like something is gonna happen to us? Like this is some goodbye?"

"It's not goodbye you dunce," Bolin said, crossing his arms over his chest, "It's a simple acknowledgement of skill between huntsmen and huntresses in the making. Any novice could see that." Nadir returned Bolin's look with a hard look of his own.

"Well I'm sorry if I didn't quite pick up on that 'subtle nuance' like any so-called 'professional'," the pink-haired boy retorted.

"Man, what's with you? That was just a simple question," Liz spoke her question to Bolin.

"Alright, we get it!" Gail called out in an attempt to silence any further talking. She then looked at the platinum blonde, "The feeling is mutual, Arslan. I enjoyed fighting with you all as well."

"This is getting so..." Angelita put a hand to her head in clear frustration, "Can we please do this so we can move on? I want to get out of here!"

"Yeah I agree with the Boarbatusk over here- let's get this going already!" Reese chimed in. Her strange comment earned her a look of straight confusion from the back-armored girl. Nonetheless, all eight teens held their stone pieces up, closely examining both their own, and everyone else's to see which ones were to fit where.

With Arslan and Bolin standing closer to each other, the two of them inspected their pieces side by side. The straightened edges held on both side was perfectly obvious that theirs were meant to fit together. They slowly angled their pieces so that the correct jagged edge would match with each other. The union between the two was seamless; in fact, the seam that should have been present between the cut section of the pieces had nearly vanished. The boy and the girl looked back up at each other, each one exchanging a nod with the other.

"Hey Eleanor, let's try ours," Nadir said to the taller girl. The two of them held out a jagged side of their pieces towards each other. The two made contact, but unfortunately the did not lock into place at all. They swapped their pieces around in different ways to see if different jagged sides met differently. No matter what ways they tried though, their pieces did not fit together.

"Huh? They don't fit?" Nadir said, pulling his piece back.

"Wait a minute, look," Eleanor pointed out. She pointed not to the jagged edges, but the more straighter edges. The piece Nadir held in his hand had two flat edges joined at a right angle, while Eleanor's piece had a single side that was one curve, "None of these jagged sides are fitting, and remember what Professor Celsius told us at the start? The control stone itself was a simple shape, like a square or a circle."

"Oh," Nadir quickly realized, "and we've got sides here that wouldn't make a solid shape..." He pulled his piece away, Eleanor doing the same, "Ah well, it was worth a try I guess-"

"Yo, either you two wanna see if mine can fit...?" Reese suddenly cut in between the two of them, wiggling her piece in front of them.

Gail and Liz held exchanged looks between each other. Having overheard what Eleanor had said, they both held their pieces out and before them to inspect closer. Both of them showed two fine cut edges on one side joined at a right angle, with two jagged edges opposite them. Their gazes swapped back and forth between the others' face and to the pieces the other held in hand. Each one was thinking the exact same thing,

'No way! There's just no way!'

Liz then shook her head, "You know what? Let's just do this! Figure this out already!"

"Y-yeah, you're right! What's the harm in just finding out...?" Gail agreed. The two girls angled their pieces with one of their jagged ends facing the others'...

Which ended up sealing together almost flawlessly on the first try. Both girls stared wide-eyed down at the now joined pieces. The central insignia of Haven's school symbol had taken half shape just now. They both looked back up at each other, both shocked expressions meeting the other.

"You have got to be kidding me!" they both practically exclaimed.

"Man, you two oughta be lots of fun with each other!" Reese noted from off to the side. By now she deduced that between Eleanor and Nadir that her piece fragment had fit with the pink-haired boy's. The two were looking to reunite their joined pieces with another set of two peoples' joined pieces. They then moved towards Arslan and Bolin.

"Come on, let's see if your pieces are a match for ours," Nadir suggested to the two. Arslan spared a quick look at Bolin before looking back at them.

"It would not hurt to find out," she said with a shrug. She and Bolin held their two joined pieces out before them carefully, and Reese and Nadir did the exact same thing.

At the same time, Eleanor had joined her piece with Angelita's. Their joined fragments now resembled a circle's half, with half the Haven Academy insignia inscribed in the center.

"Looks like it's a match," Angelita noted.

"It is," Eleanor said, then looked back over at her fellows, "And this must mean..." Eleanor, and even all the others looked around. At present, at least two peoples' pieces had been joined together, creating four 'groups' of people with half-pieces of control stones. The implication was obvious to everyone present.

As one, Reese and Nadir connected their joined pieces to Arslan and Bolin's, while Eleanor and Angelita joined theirs to Gail and Liz's. In that moment, eight fragmented pieces ceased to be, instead replaced by two single control stones. Both were different in shape; the stone held by Arslan, Bolin, Reese, and Nadir was a large square shape, while the stone held by Angelita, Eleanor, Gail, and Liz was a large circle shape. The only shared feature about them was the insignia for Haven Academy, engraved upon the top. Perhaps it was from the soft glow of the nearby Dust crystals, but the image of the insignias themselves almost appeared to glow upon being reformed.

"We've... we've done it!" Gail said. She, as well as the other three girls around her had still not taken their hands away from the reformed stone, partially for fear that it might fall apart, "We've actually done it!"

"We really have," Liz agreed.

"And this is what we've been needing to pass this test?" Angelita skeptically asked, "A bigger stone?"

"It wasn't really just about that," Eleanor spoke up, "Don't you see? We might not have gotten this control stone at all if we hadn't found the pieces. Which we also wouldn't have been able to do without slaying those Grimm; which I doubt we would've been able to do alone."

"So, what, this really was all about teamwork?" Angelita asked.

"Huh... you know the more I think about it... maybe it was," Liz said, "I didn't even know I'd find my piece 'inside' of that centinel's mouth if Gail and Bolin here hadn't told me." She looked over at the dark-blue haired girl, who returned her statement with a smile of her own.

"Teamwork, huh...?" Angelita said. She looked back and forth between the other girls faces; these three other girls who she now discovered she be potentially closer with. She'd rarely worked with another person before, let alone three. A strange sense of excitement could be felt deep within her being, even if her face retained its same stoic image.

"Alright, so you three are who I gotta work with?" Reese's voice could be heard from the other group. All eight of the teens broke apart so they could see the others better.

"This is an... interesting group, I will say," Arslan said, looking amongst her new teammates.

"Well still! I may be on a team now, but my goals are still the same!" Nadir quickly said, "I'll become the best huntsman I can be, no matter who is my partner!" His declaration actually earned various smirks from the other three, each one telling a different feeling behind their meaning.

"I would suggest we all hold on to our control stone pieces as best we can from here on out?" Bolin announced to everyone. He placed the piece in his hand within his side pouch, which prompted everyone else to do the same.

"Alright, so we all got these 'control stone' pieces here, and joined as one," Angelita said, "What else could be next? Can we maybe leave this dark cavern already?"

"That would be a good idea, if not for the fact of 'how'?" Bolin pointed out, " These little 'side tunnels' feed into this bigger chamber! There's no other way-"

"Except for the two really big elevator shafts there?" Nadir interrupted by pointing out. Everyone's attention was drawn to the further side wall. Sure enough, two large cylindrical shafts embedded into the wall itself fed down from and through the ceiling until they reached the floor. At the very base were in fact two elevator doors, each one with a set of railroad tracks connecting to the doors and leading outward into the expanse of the chamber itself.

Bolin's eyes widened a little. He glanced at Nadir to find that this time he was the one smirking.

"Ahem, yes well..." he composed himself, "Still, power being supplied to them after so long? Hardly seems likely to me-"

"I don't care! I'm outta this place!" Angelita openly dismissed. The rest watched her as she practically rushed on foot towards one of the shafts, the one on the right side.

"Is she impatient or something? What's with her?" Liz asked.

"I'm certain it's that she doesn't like the dark; well, dark, enclosed spaces like these," Eleanor replied, "They never bothered me much, but still, I guess I can understand the fear..."

Bolin looked all around the room, taking note of the Dust crystal clusters. In particular, he noted the yellow ones, illuminating the dark with a gentle yellow glow of light, "There, those yellow Dust crystals. They hold the power of electricity within them, just as those red ones hold fire within. I'm betting that they'd hold the power to the elevators' functionality, literally!"

Without waiting for further input from anyone else, he swiftly made his way to the side wall and to one of the clusters that burst from its side.

"Now wait, just hold on!" Arslan tried to declare across the chamber, "It'll be a lot safer it all of us stick closer together for the time being!"

"Yeah, I agree!" Gail added, "If more Grimm show up, then all of us will stand a better chance-" Gail's further talk was cut short by the sound of something. Everyone's gazes shot over to the source. At the side wall, the sound of machinery whirring to life could be heard. Angelita herself stood inside the right-most elevator. She was standing in front of some sort of panel controls on the elevator-car's wall. As she stood back, she could be seen wearing a big grin on her face, one that everyone else could see in clearer detail when she turned to face them.

"Heh, I think I did it!" she called out, "Well? Are you three coming or not?"

"Yeah, you did it!" Liz said, proceeding to rush over to the elevators, "Hang on I'm coming!"

"Hey, wait for me!" Eleanor called out, running directly behind her. With the others, Arslan and Gail exchanged astonished looks between each other.

"What? How is that possible?" Bolin could be heard almost exclaiming, "How can these elevators still have power? In a mining mountain that likely hasn't been used in how long?"

"Eh, who knows, and who cares?" Reese cut in with a shrug. Her response only earned her a frown from the yellow-robed boy.

"She is right, our way out of this place is working somehow, so let's make the most of this!" Gail said, shaking her head and looking back up at the other four, Arslan in particular, "I'll head up with them, you all take the other car, and we'll all head straight up at once!" Arslan nodded with a smile. The dark-blue haired girl then turned and with her hover-pack practically floated towards the elevator car the other three girls were in. She quickly entered the car and within moments the doors to the car closed shut, cutting most of them off from view, save for the couple of windows in the front.

Back with the others, Bolin by now had just rejoined with the others.

"Wait, Bolin? What is that?" Nadir suddenly pointed out. The three others looked to his hand to see what he held within it. One of the shards of yellow-colored Dust crystals now rested within the tips of his fingers.

"I'll at least not walk away from that empty handed," he said, "Even if the elevators don't require power, I can probably make use of this lightning Dust crystal somehow."

"Wait a minute," Reese spoke up, "Isn't that technically not walking away 'empty-fingered'?" Her statement was met with a vocal groan from Nadir and open looks of shock and bewilderment from Arslan and Bolin. Reese on the other hand was left with a toothy grin for her 'stellar word-play', "I mean that's what it is, isn't it? Come on, he's holding the thing in his fingers! What else could it be?"

"That is, without a doubt, one of the most ridiculous things I've ever heard today..." Bolin said, lightly shaking his head, "Seems this day is no end to strange things being spoken, with even stranger people..."

"Alright alright!" Arslan cut in, "Take that lightning Dust crystal if you must, but we've got an elevator to catch ourselves!" She pointed over to the elevator wall, where the other four's car could be seen already ascending.

"Heh, you're right about that, white-blondie!" Reese said, jumping onto her McFly, "Last one to the elevator's a Conus!" With that she sped off towards the elevator on her own. She dodged and weaved, curved and curled her riding path towards her goal. The open elevator door drew ever closer in her frontal vision...

The entire world practically exploded in an instant. Reese almost couldn't register what was happening, but what she could was a deafening crash of rock and steel. What she saw before her were rocks bursting from a single source, with smaller rock chunks sailing outwards to smash against what lay in their pathway.

The grin on Reese's face vanished for a good five seconds, with the initial surprise overtaking her in that moment. She watched what she could of this play out before her, while at the same time taking care to dodge and weave to miss falling rocks that would certainly have hit her. In between the explosion of rock, she could hear something else,

"Reese!"

That was definitely Nadir's voice, bringing her back to the world of hearing things correctly! She pushed her back foot hard on McFly to shift her flight path and turn straight around. Her new destination set in her sights: Arslan, Bolin, and Nadir were now who she was racing back towards.

By now she had cleared the falling rock debris itself, and for a moment Reese felt like she was in the clear. That is, until she felt something. A deep impact of vibration felt throughout her body! She'd know something hitting the ground hard anywhere! Even weirder how her McFly wasn't even touching the ground at all to feel it! What was that?

She glanced an eye over her shoulder, and in an instant, almost regretted doing so.

Directly behind her, traveling at speed almost as fast as herself, was a Grimm! But it wasn't any centinel like before; this one was something else! A massive, scaly head white head with two glowing red eyes, with a front that even while closed still allowed a forked tongue to slip out, almost like it was trying to grab at her! That was all that could be seen, both with what Reese wanted to see, and all from what there actually was. There was no other extremities to be seen on this creature. The massive snake-like Grimm had slithered out from the burst section of the wall at high-speed, trying to keep up with the mint-haired speedster that she was!

Looking into this big thing's eyes, Reese could feel something within her inner self. Dread? Fear? Anxiety?

Excitement?

Probably that last one.

As she rode forward away from the Grimm, her gaze was focused straight on her fellow mountain partners standing before her. Each one of them stared in wide-eyed surprise at the massive Grimm slithering down towards them at high speed.

"Big Grimm! BIG GRIMM!" Nadir exclaimed.

"A Diamondback?! Here?!" Bolin cried out.

"Everyone! SCATTER!" Arslan practically screamed as well.

---

The inside of the elevator car was filled with equal parts tension from everyone. The four girls had been witness to the massive snake-like Grimm that had burst out of the wall towards the other four students in the chamber. As it all happened, the entire car and elevator shaft they occupied shook violently; for a moment it felt as if the Grimm itself had managed graze their car in the process of emerging from the wall. However, the elevator proceeding its intended path straight up the elevator shaft put an end to any notions that they had been attacked mid-ascent.

Once the shaking had stopped , the girls were granted a clearer view of what exactly had happened.

"Brothers! Look out there!" Eleanor exclaimed, having rushed to the glass panels of the elevator car door. She and the others looked down to see the slithering form of this giant Grimm, having pulled itself through the hole in the wall that was... directly below them?

"That thing... that, giant Grimm! Did it just burst through the wall? Both the rock and the metal of the wall?" Liz tried to crane her head to look straight down the shaft for a better view.

"That shaking, this big metal box. I thought it was gonna fall..." Angelita spoke lowly. Her trembling right hand was gripping the hilt of Anky hard enough for her knuckles to turn white a little.

This did not go unnoticed by Gail. She reached over to place a gentle hand on Angelita's shoulder. The short haired girl looked at the other one, almost surprised by this sudden action. Gail then turned her head to address everyone at once.

"Is everyone alright?" she asked.

"Just a little shaken I guess..." Liz said, "But man! How did we just live through that?! We could have died!"

"But look! Down there!" Eleanor pointed back down at the chamber floor. Many feet below them, the other members of the test were scrambling all around as the giant Grimm slithered towards them. The sheer size difference between them and the monster was staggering, even from their perception of them so high in the air, "The others! They're still in trouble! We've gotta do something!"

"No we don't!" Angelita spoke, a little force creeping into her voice as she spoke, "We don't have to do anything! Not when we're almost out of this mountain!"

"What exactly can we do, Eleanor?" Liz countered, pointing a finger straight down and along the shaft they rode up, "Didn't you see the massive hole that Grimm left in the shaft we were just at a few moments ago!? You oughta be lucky you weren't there a few seconds later! Either of us!"

"But... but...!" Eleanor looked frantically back and forth between her fellow test-takers standing beside her. None of their facial expressions granted any relenting to what they were feeling. She slowly looked back at the elevator door, her fist pounding on the glass one last time.

At the same time, the view instantly shift to rising rock walls traveling downward. They had passed through into the ceiling, and thus were not able to see anything further from the outside world. The only form of light now came from the small lightbulb that illuminated their elevator door from the top center of the ceiling.

The taller girl turned back towards the others. Her face was openly downcast as she stared at the floor. Her fists were now clenched tightly at her side.

"Eleanor..." Gail cautiously spoke up while taking a small step towards her, "You know there's nothing that could have been done, right...? There's no way we could transfer elevator shafts through a solid rock wall, while in motion no less..." The red-haired girl did not reply, but her lips could still be seen tightening a little even from the angle her head was posed at.

"A-and besides!" Gail spoke up, "We shouldn't be all that worried about them! We know they can fight! We saw them fight! They're really strong, weren't they?" Silence hung between them for a few moments longer. In that moment Gail began to feel like her words were not carrying through to the taller girl. That is, until she finally spoke up.

"Arslan... she's really strong," she finally said. Gail smiled with a nod. She gave a subtle glance towards Liz and Angelita, a small tilt of her head giving just enough direction for what she wanted.

"Yeah, and that Nadir guy? For a human he could hold his own!" the faunus girl said,

"Reese too..." Angelita said.

"So you see? They're gonna be just fine!" Gail said, "That... thing down there? That's just one more Grimm that they'll have to face. And one more that they'll end up slaying!" A sharp inhale of breath could be heard from Eleanor. The girls then saw as she finally unclenched both of her fists and looked back up.

"You're right," she said, "They can do it. I hope they can." With a bigger smile, Gail clapped one of Eleanor's shoulders. The taller girl gave a shy smile coupled with a light blush from the simple praising gesture.

"As for us, we've just gotta focus on the next step," Gail said, looking straight up and towards where they were bound towards, "To the control panel, and off of this mountain finally...!"

---

-For some added context in regards to Nadir's exact Semblance: He produces physical razor-edged flower in between his fingers that can be thrown like shuriken. Imagine the Totally Spies intro where Clover had such flowers in between her fingers and threw them out, and there you have it. Again, had to come up with something since neither the show nor books ever gave him much, yet at the same time try and keep in line with the type of character he is (or at least 'my' portrayal of him). Anyway, read, review, all that good stuff, and I'll be back real soon!-