The morning of the initiation was calm as far as anyone could tell, just the way Jaune liked it, excitement could wait until he was well and properly awake. How the other teachers were able to wake up at this ungodly hour regularly and without issue was unknown to him. Normally, he'd still be sleeping at this hour were it not the day of initiation. Realistically, it could have been any other member of the faculty standing in his place, but there were a few students he wanted to check in on, his daughter and immediate family of course, as well as a young man who'd eluded him so far, though he doubted Lao was doing so on purpose. Still, he watched closely as the students steadily filed out of the auditorium in their usual, orderly yet chaotic manner.
He saw a few faces he recognized. His daughter seemed attached at the hip to Jin, as usual when they were together. He chuckled, his daughter seeming to have inherited his complete lack of subtlety, and there were two others that caught his eye, walking just a bit behind his daughter and her childhood friend. One was a green haired boy, who was talking with a red-headed girl with horns, both of which felt eerily familiar to the Huntsman. Before he could really question why he felt that though, the four first-year students made their way out, headed towards the direction of the veritable warehouse that was the academy's locker room.
Almost as soon as they left Jaune's sight, the increasing volume of exceedingly fast paced footsteps alerted him to the presence of an old friend behind him. Glancing over his shoulder, he saw the aged, yet no less robust, Bartholomew Oobleck, the man sipping his signature coffee. A blend which he still wasn't convinced didn't have some sort of electric Dust element in it.
"Morning Oobleck." Jaune greeted with a smile, his old history teacher raising his mug in return before similarly smiling and greeting the blond.
"Jaune, it's always a pleasure. How goes it?"
"Oh, just helping out where I can before I get properly situated."
"How generous of you, especially with the… unusual circumstances of this year." The teacher said after a sip of his coffee.
Jaune raised an eyebrow at that, while it probably didn't actually need to be asked he did anyway.
"Meaning?"
"Well it's no secret that there's already a number of students you're previously acquainted with. Mr. Belladonna, Miss Ironwood, your two sisters-in-law." Bartholomew said casually motioning to the duo of Goose and Elizabeth as they walked past, along with Belka, who walked a fair distance behind them. The short woman was keeping a keen eye on her beloved Aunt after the little disappearing act she had pulled the day before. Trailing a fair bit behind them was Belka by her lonesome, seemingly pretending that the other girls weren't there. Jaune made a wave at them, Goose and Liz returning the gesture as they passed, while his less familiar sister simply turned her head up, acting as if she was above him in a way that couldn't help but remind him of his dear wife when they had first met. Before he could even wonder what that was about Oobleck continued. "Not to mention your own daughter."
"Oobleck, come on, I'm not gonna play favorites, I'm not even a proper teacher here, just the counselor." Jaune said, glancing back at the students. As he continued his scan of the incoming students, his eye was caught by another one that stood out as vaguely familiar. One, a woman with bright red hair, similar in color to Pyrrha's. He felt some melancholy creep up at the thought, trying to push it down and turning back to his colleague who was, at last, finishing a drink from his mug.
"Even when it comes to Mr. Ren over there?" At the mention of his godson, Jaune followed the man's gaze to the blank-faced young man as he passed, abruptly ending his conversation with the veteran history teacher as he moved towards the son of his longtime friend, Oobleck, chuckling warmly as he did so.
"Lao, wait up!" Jaune called out as he ran up to the boy. The young man turned and looked up at the taller man with a blank expression. Well, blank to most, Jaune had known this boy his entire life. The ever so slight upwards tilt of his lips gave away his true feelings. The boy was hard to read, but not impossible, and certainly not for Jaune.
"Jaune, it's good to see you. Mother and Father told me to tell you hello." The boy said in a monotone voice that reminded Jaune of his old teammate. Ren had certainly had an impact on the young man, even if it had been out of necessity. Regardless, Jaune tried to look at the bright side of how much the boy took after his father as the two embraced.
"Knowing your mother, she told you to squeeze until you heard me squeak." Jaune chuckled, getting a nod from the boy.
"That she did." Lao nodded in response. Much like his father, he wasn't exactly the easiest person to carry out a conversation with. Something that, much like his father, Jaune was confident he'd grow out of via spending more time around his peers and people his own age.
"Well, I won't keep you, but if you need anything, you know where to find me. And Lumi's always here if you need someone a bit closer to your age for something."
Jaune watched as the boy got back in line with his fellow students, having promised Nora to keep an eye on the boy. While Ren had no doubts Lao would be fine, his mother was beyond worried, not that he blamed her, it was the first time he was away from home. They had lost both of their families once before, he wasn't surprised that at least one of them was deathly afraid of losing their new one.
The jolt of an exceedingly smug slurping noise from behind him suddenly ripped Jaune from his thoughts, realizing the line of students had passed and he was now staring off into empty space as Oobleck watched.
"No favorites, eh?"
Jin sat on the bench, The Golden Path, his gauntlets and greaves already attached to his arms and legs, so for now he was just waiting for his friend and her family to finish getting ready. He took a moment to glance up from his book, only to see Lumi inspecting her family sword, Crocea Mors, the paired parrying dagger she carried alongside it already sheathed at her hip. Meanwhile, Liz was loading rounds into the cylinder of her sidearm, Due, while her segmented sword, Exenterator, remained in its spot inside her locker. Which only left his cousin, and their aunt, who had been standing in front of him for a minute apparently, patiently waiting for him to look away from the book.
"So, whatcha think it's gonna be like?" Goose asked with a smile, her own weapon, a shotgun named Glücksfall that featured a blade running along the underside of the barrel , slung over her shoulder. The over-under barrels of the weapon were, thankfully, still pointed down at the ground and not at anyone.
"Huh, I never really thought about it. Maybe we just gotta kill some certain amount of Grimm?" The Faunus wondered out loud, rubbing his chin in thought.
"If what Mother and Father told me is still true, we're going to be thrown off of a cliff and expected to find some sort of objective." Lumi spoke up from her spot, sheathing Crocea Mors before closing her locker, Jin and Goose seemingly accepting the possibility that they'd be flung into the sky in less than an hour, unlike Elizabeth, who's brow furrowed as she looked up.
"Isn't that incredibly dangerous and irresponsible?"
"Perhaps," Lumi began, stunning her cousin by how little this idea bothered her. Apparently being the only sane one present. "But, if my Mother and Father could handle it, then we should be able to as well." Lumi said, her tone sounding more self-assured in her own abilities despite the scenario she was describing to the others, something that didn't go unnoticed by the other girl rounding the corner.
"You seem a bit too sure of yourself, there's plenty that could go wrong you know." Belka said, announcing her presence as she stood in the middle of the hall with her arms crossed, her voice sounding as though she was chastising her niece for not taking the initiation seriously.
"You mean I could be partnered with you?" Lumi retorted, turning on her heel to face the older teen. Unlike the day before, the harsh response was met with a snort as Belka walked right past the Schnee girls and Jin, who watched in confusion. He saw the irritation on Lumi and Elizabeth's faces at Belka's little intrusion, before turning to Goose, who knowingly shook her head. Clearly it was better not to ask.
"As if you'd be so lucky." Belka stated, her voice higher than usual as she opened up her locker and shot a sideways glance at Lumi. "Apologies my dear niece, but I'd rather not be paired up with someone so… unpleasant." A smirk crept up her lips as she saw the way Lumi bristled at the comment. Served her right.
"I could be your partner!" Goose said, breaking the tension with the subtlety of a semi-truck and drawing glances from just about everyone. The awkward silence remained for a moment as the rest of the group silently debated on whether or not to even acknowledge the statement. Eventually, Belka dismissed the idea entirely with a roll of her eyes. The Branwen flinched at that and looked down, fiddling with the black feather that lay in her hair.
"What are you doing here anyway?" Lumi huffed, wanting to lay into the woman with the ferocity of a Sabyr for her response to her Aunt. But, she knew better than to make a second scene in just as many days, and moreso, wanting to avoid getting her friend involved in her family's issues.
"My locker's here, duh." Belka said as though it was obvious, pulling her naginata from her locker and attaching it to a magnetic strip on her back, walking off as she did so. "Well, as much as I'd love to stay and chat, I do believe we have an initiation to get to."
"What was that about?" Jin leaned over and whispered into Goose's ear, knowing better than to get Lumi started as she looked like she'd explode like his mom on a bad day if he asked her. .
"It's a long story." Goose muttered back, similarly not wanting to get into it.
Lumi and Liz shared a look, not bothering to give Belka the satisfaction of watching her walk away. After she left their sight, the Arc-Schnee girl sighed, because as much as she hated to admit it, her Aunt was right. They did need to get going.
Elsewhere in the locker room, Jet and Scarlet sat next to one another on one of the benches, their weapons already secured to their scabbards and holster respectively. Scarlet stretched one final time while she still had the opportunity to do so, and Jet gave his weapon a quick once over. While he didn't have nearly enough time to go as in depth as he would have liked, he could at least cover the bare minimum, something that Scarlet noticed as she glanced over whilst rolling her shoulder.
"Didn't you already do that yesterday?" She asked playfully, chuckling at her friend's obsessive repetition. While she expected nothing less from him, she still found it amusing when Jet got like this, maybe even a little cute.
"I barely even got started, I wanted to do a deep clean before today, if it jams in the field, my ass could be grass." The green haired boy said, pulling back the slide and staring intently into the chamber, trying to spot anything wrong. Scarlet just watched, knowing he wouldn't spot anything, but that he also wouldn't stop until he had looked over every last inch of his beloved pistol.
"Jet, you've had that thing for years and it's jammed like three times." Scarlet reminded him trying to ease the boy's worries.
"Yes Scarlet, because I maintain it." Jet shot back, a bit sharper than he had intended, stopping for a moment as he realized the tone he used and looking over sheepishly at his friend. Scarlet nonchalantly shrugged in response, completely unbothered by the accidental attitude. Were it anyone else, she would've already shot back with her own flavor of rude, and more than likely crude, bit of sass but… well, Jet put up with her plenty enough, he had earned a bit of slack.
"See this is why I just use swords, just sharpen them and they'll work wonders."
"Thank you!" A voice from the side said suddenly. Jet on instinct slid the magazine back into Hephaestus and chambered a round, turning to see none other than the girls from the airship. The speaker was the more muscular girl of the duo, her face beaming at Scarlet with a wide , the girl who had been people watching narrowed her eyes and flexed her weapon, a set of wires attached to what looked like shoulder mounted pylons, at Jet's raised weapon, filling the silence with an electric hum. Jet, realizing his over-reaction, began to mutter an apology. Knowingly, Scarlet gave him a pat on the back while the muscular woman seemed to completely ignore the display, instead nudging the electric brunette with her elbow in an extremely smug fashion. "See Roe, someone else thinks simple weapons are just as good as overcomplicated ones like yours."
Rosaria rolled her eyes, of course Juliet would try to turn this into a defense of that misshapen hunk of metal she called "a club".
"That is not at all what Scarlet said, Juliet."
"I… didn't tell you my name." Scarlet said slowly, glancing at Jet who shook his head in response, similarly weirded out by the girl already knowing his friend's name.
"You didn't need to, I overheard your conversation just now." Rosaria said, lacking any trace of a joking attitude or self-awareness about how off-putting that statement was as an introduction. The pair glanced over to Juliet, who seemed to cringe at her friend's blunder. Stepping forward and throwing her arm around her friend's shoulders, Juliet figured she should try to salvage the interaction before they got reported for stalking their fellow classmates.
"Don't worry, she's nosy, but harmless, I'm Juliet, and this weirdo is Rosaria." Juliet ignored the almost offended look Rosaria had given her and winked at the pair still on the bench.
While still awkward, the mood had lost basically all tension. Jet sighed, while he would have preferred something far more normal, this was still preferable to the spat he had witnessed the day before. Looking at the girls before him, he was reminded of himself and Scarlet, at least at how different they seemed at first glance, even down to the weapons they wielded, Rosaria's wires being so subtle you could be forgiven for missing it at a glance, and Juliet…
Okay no, he had to ask about whatever the hell that thing was supposed to be.
"Is that your weapon?"
Juliet stepped forward proudly leaning on the club like a walking stick, promptly ignoring the judgment in Jet's voice and giving a smirk.
"Yup, I call it 'Alternative Deathstyle'!" Juliet said, adding a bit of growl to the name as if to try and emphasize the "badassness" of it. Jet had to hold a groan in, something he'd grown accustomed to knowing Scarlet as long as he had. Rosaria seemed to share this sentiment, rolling her eyes as her friend repeated her rehearsed act. But he already knew it would be right up his bovine friend's alley.
"Dude, that's sick." Scarlet said without even a hint of irony in her voice.
"Please don't encourage her." Rosaria asked. Jet could practically hear the plea in her voice as she asked his friend, but it was too late, Juliet's smile had grown big and toothy as she was at last vindicated.
"Hey you guys coming?" Jin asked, looking over the lockers at Scarlet and Jet. All four teens turned to the monkey boy as he waved. Juliet waved back at the new face after taking a moment to assess the new arrival. Ah, that's right, they had to get going. Strapping themselves up, the four turned the corner, being met with Jin and the three Schnee girls.
"Scarlet?" Goose asked, smiling at the girl in question.
"Oh, hey Goose, what's up?" Scarlet said, walking closer, only to stop once she saw Lumi standing there, looking just as prickly as when they had first met. Seriously, was this girl ever in a good mood? Lumi turned, meeting Scarlet's gaze with one of her own. The Schnee tilted her head, silently asking what the Faunus found so curious about her. As the tension seemed to be returning, Goose looked between them, a bit worried that her niece would go off on the girl over yesterday's events. Scarlet sighed, not wanting to make things worse. So, instead, she just shrugged, trying to act casual like she hadn't just been given the stink eye. "Ah, don't worry, we're cool now, right?"
Lumi stared for a moment, weighing her options. The ball was in her court now, and she had promised Jin she'd act more… agreeable. She sighed, this hadn't even been about the cow-girl, it was that uppity Aunt of hers putting her in a sour mood. She wouldn't let that Gele girl make her so worked up that she went around giving her family a bad reputation. Taking a moment to compose herself, Lumi put on a face that didn't quite look like she was upset at everything around her, nodding curtly before speaking in a calm and practiced manner.
"Well, there are certainly worse people to be around."
It really hadn't sounded like a yes to Scarlet, in fact it felt rather backhanded. But, the girl was at least trying, and Scarlet guessed that alone was an improvement over yesterday.
Glynda strode back and forth before the students, standing on the cliff overseeing the sectioned off property of Forever Fall, the maroon leaves falling from the trees around them as she addressed the teens standing before her.
"Every year, I'm asked what the purpose of this initiation is, after all you've already passed our entrance exams have you not?" She began, cutting off the line of questioning before it had a chance to start. A few of the students seemed to pay more attention to this. Good, this batch is already showing some promise. Stepping forward Ruby began where Glynda left off.
"The purpose is twofold. Firstly, it gives us a more clear evaluation of each student and what their strengths and weaknesses are. The other is team assignment." The assistant headmistress began, looking over the students with a far more kindly look in her eyes than Glynda's cold, evaluating gaze. As she swept over the assembled initiates, she nodded at them encouragingly, several seemed to appreciate it, like her nephew and younger cousin. However, one student rolled her amber eyes at the gesture, making Ruby feel more than a bit guilty as she remembered the day before. She'd have to apologize when she got the chance. Scarlet hadn't deserved that.
Glynda glanced over her shoulder, her assistant having taken a bit too long for her liking and speaking once more.
"The assignment of partners is the same as it has been for the entirety of the School's history, the first person you make eye contact with will be your partner for the rest of your tenure at Beacon." She didn't even bother trying to hush the group's murmurs, knowing it would be pointless, and to let them get it out of their system. There was a clear divide between the few who knew and those who didn't, mostly from the students whose parents had been through it before. Jin was unbothered, maintaining a calm smile as he listened along, next to him Lumi nodded along confidently as though it was common knowledge, meanwhile some other students like Juliet went pale at the revelation, sharing a glance with her friend.
Scarlet particularly had to hold herself back from cursing under her breath upon hearing this. Great, it was up to random chance, and with how her luck had been at the school so far, there was a good chance she ended up partnered up with an asshole, or someone weird like that Rosaria girl… then again compared to Lumi or the girl with resting bitch face and a Naginata, maybe she was the better option. Jet clearly didn't like it based on the way he shifted after the information was revealed. It was unpredictable, something he hated. She felt bad, he was probably freaking out worse than her. Only difference was, his poker face just blew Scarlet's out of the water.
"Your objective is simple, you are to head into Forever Fall, retrieve a single relic from a set location, and return here with both yourselves and the relic intact. Within the Forest you will face lesser Grimm, but do not take their status lightly, you will not have any assistance aside from that provided by your fellow students, we will be monitoring you, but we cannot intervene. This is no game, it's life and death." The headmistress stopped before Luna, glancing down at the chewed up collar before turning her unamused gaze back to the girl, who shrunk a little under her gaze. Moving on, she took a once over on Goose, who just smiled at the woman as she walked by, unbothered by the woman's more harsh nature. She blamed Qrow for making her sound soft to the girl. She moved on once more, standing next to Ruby and giving the woman a small nod. Seeing her signal, Ruby opened her scroll and snickered as Glynda continued speaking, a small smirk gracing her lips.
"First thing of note, you'll need to come up with a landing strategy."
As soon as the words left her lips the platform under Jin made a weird noise, alerting the boy that something was happening beneath him about a split second before he was launched into the air. The other students were left gawking, his screaming quickly fading out as the muscular monkey rapidly turned into a speck on the horizon, giving way to his aunt's cackling. Scarlet's jaw dropped as she and several others looked to the professors for some form of an explanation.
"Mr. Belladonna has the advantage of an anti-gravity Semblance. The rest of you, to my knowledge, lack any such abilities. I would suggest coming up with a landing strategy. Soon."
As soon as the headmistress finished, Ruby pressed another button. Oh crap, they were gonna throw them all off? Okay that was fine, Scarlet had a moment, Jin was a good bit away, she'd have a moment to prepare before it was her turn to be sent flying. Or, that's what she thought was the case as she, along with every other student, got sent into the air simultaneously in a grand chorus of terrified teenage screaming.
Ruby watched with a smile, she hadn't expected that to be as fun to watch as it was the first time she'd been there for this, but every year after she couldn't help the strange glee that came with watching her upcoming students soar through the open air. Turning to her friend with a smile, Ruby didn't even try to hide her amusement now that it was the two of them.
"I gotta say, I think this is my favorite part of initiation."
The students each reacted in their own ways to the sudden situation they found themselves in, mostly variations of shock. Lumi reacted first, aligning herself against the ground with her momentum and summoned a Glyph in the air to land on. No longer sailing through the air, she looked at the students still falling. There was no sign of Jin, the boy was almost certainly already on the ground, probably laughing about the incident as his Aunt had moments before. So, she looked for any other familiar figures in the sky, seeing the long orange hair of Lao diving straight down and disappearing into the treeline, seeming to have found a suitable place to land. Meanwhile, Goose aimed the twin barrels of Glücksfall down at the earth and fired, not just stopping her downward momentum, but somehow reversing it entirely. Lumi was surprised at the force behind the shot, impressed that her Aunt was somehow able to fire a weapon with that much kick single handedly. Elizabeth was next, but rather than use her Glyphs as Lumi had, she drew her blade, extending it into its whip form, and with a simple flick of her wrist, wrapped it around a branch and swung it around before coming to a gradual stop. It seemed she had her pick of people, now she just had to find a direction.
Meanwhile Belka screamed, impotently flailing her arms as she soared through the air. They just launched her off of a cliff! What kind of educational institute launches their students off of a cliff!? She'd sue them, her father would sue them into oblivion! But first, she had to survive this fall somehow. Seeing the maroon abyss below her gradually get closer and closer, the gaps in the trees growing larger and larger, she figured she had only a few moments before she crashed into the dirt below. Thinking fast, she pulled Morgan from its place on her back, the laser function wouldn't slow her momentum in the slightest, since it was, after all, a laser, meaning it had no mass and therefore no recoil, so that left the polearm function. Eyeballing her arc, she spotted a pair of close together trees she'd conveniently be passing through, which would do well enough given the circumstances. Still hurtling through the air, she started positioning her weapon in front of her horizontally, bracing herself for the wind to be knocked out of her.
"Look out!" A familiar voice called out, distracting her just a moment before pressing the button to extend her weapon. And before she could even comprehend the warning, let alone react to it, another body crashed into her, apparently somehow having aligned their trajectory with hers and knocked the both of them off course. Once again yelling at the top of her lungs, she desperately grabbed onto the new body, a girl, who did the same, both bracing one another for impact as they quickly lost altitude.
Branches snapped as they passed through the autumn canopy, broken wood scraping against their Auras as they grinded to a painful stop. Belka groaned as she lay upside down, suspended by creaking branches. Well at the very least, she didn't have to worry about how to come to a stop now. She didn't know whether she should thank the other girl in this situation with her, or admonish them. Her mind was tilting towards the latter when she opened her eyes and registered the wide curious eyes of Goose Branwen, their faces so close their noses were all but touching.
"Oops… Hi." The girl said casually, smiling at the irritated Gele woman. "So I guess we're partners after all huh? Pretty cool, right?"
Belka, despite all efforts to hold in her frustration within, growled at the girl, causing Goose to jolt backwards, loosening the branches hold on them, and sending them both falling down to the forest floor.
Coming to a stop at the base of the tree, Elizabeth pulled on Exenterator, slicing through the branch its blades had been wrapped around and retracting into its straightened form. The branch landed next to her with a crunch, something that was promptly ignored by the petite woman as she strode forward, pulling her scroll from her pocket and opening the map. Her objective was clearly marked a good way into the forest, it would be a bit of a hike, but not something she couldn't handle. Though, it would certainly be boring if she had to go the whole way on her own.
While Elizabeth was content to ignore her surroundings for the moment, her landing had attracted the attention of a small pack of Beowolves, which silently lurked behind her. They watched curiously, never having seen a human act so calm at such a short distance aways from them. The largest and most aggressive of them, the Alpha, grew impatient only a moment later, leaping forward with a snarl and ready to lock its powerful jaws around her fragile neck. It never got the chance as the small girl raised her hand behind her without even looking away from her scroll, summoning a Glyph. The Alpha Beowolf registered this newfound intrusion in the path of its prey, but couldn't react in time, comically smashing into the floating sigil head first, leaving it dazed and plastered across the Glyph.
"Can't you see I'm busy?" She asked rhetorically, drawing her revolver, Due, and aiming it right at the Glyph before firing, the gravity round that had been chambered collided with the Glyph and infused it with the gravity Dust within, sending the creature flying back into its pack like a lupine wrecking ball, knocking most of them to the ground like bowling pins. One Beowolf, the smallest and the weakest of the pack, watched its compatriots sudden impairment from the sidelines and started charging forward in response. Readying the next shot, Liz blew it's leg off with a single round, sending it face first into the dirt. Her father's old revolver was just as reliable as when the former general used it, and had not lost any of the power it had held either, something she was acutely aware of given the familiar ache of its excessive recoil now working its way up her left arm. Moving in, Elizabeth drew Exenterator, decapitating the beast with a flick of her wrist as she passed by, now wielding her saber and revolver in tandem as the group, now made up of six beasts, started to close in as one, save for the Alpha, which was still recovering.
The odds weren't in her favor, outnumbered six to one as she was, but the solution was a simple matter of divide and conquer, and with Grimm like this, it would be trivial at best. Taking aim, she fired a round from Due into the elbow of one in the front, blasting its arm clean off past the joint, causing it to fall and trip up the one immediately behind it. Leaping up, she used a Glyph as a platform, causing one to miss and rush past right below her. Now, with only two to deal with in the moment, she extended Exenterator into its whip form, wrapping it around the creature's torso as she jumped over it, landing in front of another Beowolf that was charging in behind it, the Grimm wasting no time as it swung at her with its claws. It didn't even get close enough to touch her, as with one swing, Exenterator's whip bisected the pack member it was wrapped around behind her before lashing into the beast before her with the residual motion, lopping off the top half of its skull, its raised form slumping to the blanket of autumn leaves below as it began to disintegrate.
Three down, four to go.
Focusing on the three in front of her, she aimed at the now recovered Alpha only to be met with its one armed packmate, which seemed less than pleased with the girl for the damage it had taken from her, charging in and receiving a hole in its chest courtesy of Due for its troubles. She made a mental note that she had two shots left before she'd need to reload, before the weight of one's paw crashed into her from behind, slamming the small girl face first into the ground. Damn, she'd forgotten the one that had missed its charge. And now it had her head in its grasp, easily lifting her off the ground and into the air. How could she have made such a rookie mistake!? She began to ready a Glyph below her to try and kick herself free, only to suddenly find herself falling to the ground as the clawed grip on her head began to disintegrate. The creature also slumped to the ground and started to howl in pain, looking at its suddenly severed arm.
Before Elizabeth could opportunise on her bout of good luck and deliver the killing blow herself, a figure with a head of bright orange hair leaped over the Beowulf and landed an open palm strike into the monster's snout, caving its skull in with one strike. With the immediate threat suddenly disposed of by Lao, Liz spun around, determined not to make the same mistake twice, took aim at the closer of the two beasts, ready to put it down before it got into melee range. Lao seemed to have other plans, calmly walking forward and raising his hand in silent disagreement. Elizabeth tensed and retracted her sword into its blade form, not wanting to risk hitting him with her ranged weapons. Okay, it seemed they were doing this up close and personal then. Or, they would've if a chakram didn't swing around on its return arc, cutting the final minor Beowolf in half as it returned to Lao's hand. Elizabeth chuckled as she got to her feet, it seemed her new partner had some sense after all.
The Alpha, having learned from its initial mistake of underestimating the young Hunters, approached slowly, Liz's bullet still embedded into its thick rib cage. Elizabeth turned to Lao, hoping to get some sort of idea of their plan of attack, only to be met by his stoic face still fully focused on the Grimm.
Right, they were 'winging it' as Goose would say.
Elizabeth made the opening move by attempting to conjure a Glyph under the beast, planning to pull its feet out from under it, but the Alpha had other plans, leaping forward the moment she raised her weapon. Lao moved in, his chakrams, Ao Bing and Ao Quang, held tightly in his hands as he moved to slash at its stomach, aiming for the thinner part of its hide. Unfortunately the monster acted first, raising its arm to strike in response, causing the blades to clash, and subsequently bounce off, the hard bone spikes protruding from its skin, knocking Lao back. Elizabeth scowled, seeing the spark of intelligence in its movements. That wasn't just a coincidence, that was deliberate, planned. This one was smart, not some near-mindless beast like its packmates. She moved in, slashing at its rear leg with Exenterator to distract the Alpha before it could try to rush Lao. With its attention thoroughly drawn to her, she used her smaller size to her advantage, sliding along the ground with her Glyphs just low enough to be out of its immediate range. Intending to finish this quickly, Elizabeth aimed up as she slid under it, firing another round upwards into its chest. The bullet hit its mark, slipping in between the bony rib cage and into the black flesh below, ripping its chest asunder and tearing open the surrounding flesh. It roared in agony as black smoke seeped out of the open wound, yet it stayed standing, seeming to be fueled on nothing but its own rage. However, now significantly hampered by its wounds, it couldn't react in time as Lao ran in and delivered a strike right into its open wound, Aura traveling up his arm and exiting through his fist in a shockwave that caused the beast's upper body to expand like a balloon before finally exploding into a matte black mist. The Alpha's powerful legs stayed standing a moment longer before giving out, and finally started to disintegrate.
Getting back into a standing position, Liz looked around, making sure the two of them had finished the group of lupine Grimm before relaxing. That had been more challenging than she had expected, as in, it was challenging at all to begin with. While she was confident she could have taken the pack on her own, their numbers had… complicated matters.
"That wasn't necessary. But I do appreciate the assist." She said warmly, turning to the boy as she disposed of the spent casings and began to reload her revolver, noting that she had only a single bullet remaining within Due's cylinder. Lao simply hummed in acknowledgement, an action paired with an almost unnoticeable nod as he looked around, getting his bearings. The almost complete lack of response didn't really sit right with her. Maybe it was just nerves? A proper introduction would hopefully fix that. "I'm Elizabeth Ironwood, pleased to meet you…"
She trailed off, purposely passing the conversation off to him. Not that he seemed to notice, instead he continued looking off into the distance in the direction of their objective. The silence lingered for an uncomfortable amount of time before he looked over at his new partner, his expression blank.
"Lao Ren."
And that was it, with a tone that was flatter than the ground they walked on. Oookay. Not much of a talker, this was going to be fun.
Scarlet grunted as she tried to rip Wilt and Bleed from the tree she had impaled to stop her fall. She had planned on cutting right through it, hoping the trunk would be just thick enough to slow her down and let her land safely. Her plan had technically worked, but she had underestimated just how thick the tree was, and now she was left struggling and defenseless in a Grimm populated area. Thankfully no one was around to see the display, yet. Jet she could handle, she had years of dirt on him that would keep him quiet. But the others? She was not letting them find her like this, fruitlessly pulling her blades from a tree with the grace of an apprentice woodcutter half her age. Grunting harder, Scarlet braced her foot against the tree in an attempt to use leverage, and after a few moments of really putting her back into it, she managed to move the blade all of a few inches. Great. As she strained and heaved, Scarlet was too busy to notice the approaching footprints of the Sabyr, the Grimm stopping at the edge of the clearing and tilting its head in confusion at the girl's struggle.
"What is all that racket?" The voice caused Scarlet to damn near jump out of her skin, spinning on her heel and reaching for her sheathed blades, only to be met with the frustrating emptiness as she remembered that the tree was their sheath now. Thankfully, she wasn't in any actual danger from the new presence, though she was no less startled by what she saw.
Approaching slowly and curiously, the ethereal beast tilted its head much like that of a humble house cat, its body nearly completely transparent were it not for the bright, yet soft glow it seemed to radiate from within. Its rider was far less amused, staring Scarlet down with a gaze almost as cool as her eyes.
"Oh, of course it's you." Lumi sighed. Honestly of all people, not Jin, not Liz, not even Goose. She found Scarlet. Neither of them even remotely tried to hide their displeasure at finding each other, Scarlet grumbling as she went back to struggling with her blades. Lumi watched for a moment, finding amusement in the girl's plight, but it quickly grew tedious, and then downright pitiful. Fed up with her newfound partner's ineffectiveness, Lumi dismounted from her summon and approached the struggling redhead with her arms crossed.
"Do you need help?"
Scarlet glanced over her shoulder, her amber eyes conveying a look of utmost hatred straight at Lumi as the girl stood there, just watching unamused, her body language screaming at Scarlet to hurry up with her crossed arms and tapping foot, staring impatiently as if Scarlet wasn't trying her damnedest to get her weapons free.
"I've got it." Scarlet grumbled, ignoring her as best she could as she once again put her back into pulling on the blades from their oaken prison.
"Really? Because that doesn't look like you do." Lumi said matter of factly. Scarlet growled in response, just trying to just take her mind off of the comments. What, did little miss Arc-Schnee think she wanted her weapons stuck in this damned tree? She needed to change the subject before she knocked the smaller girl's lights out. Looking past Lumi, she eyed the feline Grimm, feeling almost disturbed by the uncanniness of the literal demon sitting there, grooming itself before stretching its non-existent muscles, like its very existence wasn't defined by its unwavering hatred for all sentient life.
"What is that thing anyway? Like, some kind of hard-light Dust construct? Jet's into all that Dust and weapon stuff, but I think I'd remember something like that coming up in class." Scarlet asked, trying to act casual and pretend they weren't both fed up with one another already, mostly just because she had indeed promised to try with her. It seemed to be the right call as Lumi's eyes lit up. Finally, something they could talk about like normal people.
"It's my Semblance actually." She said with pride, completely missing the way Scarlet groaned while she went on to explain. "As if simple constructs could accomplish something so life-like. We Schnees are able to summon our fallen foes. For example, I slew Sebastian here when I was merely fourteen!"
Of course, of course this girl found a way to tie this back into her family, did she ever talk about anything else? And, considering the smirk on her face as she patted the thing, there was no way in hell that the comment about her killing the thing at fourteen wasn't gloating. Although, that did give her an idea. Semblances, huh? Maybe she needed to do a bit of showing off herself. Grabbing onto the twin hilts of her beloved swords, Scarlet let the blood flow off from her Aura, encasing the blades in the liquid she had conjured up, and, via adding no small amount of power into the weapons, she carved right through the tree like a hot knife through butter. With two colossal gashes in its trunk, the tree began to list away from them and begin fall over, hitting the ground with a great thump just as Wilt and Bleed's crossguards met the mouths of their sheaths.
"Well, guess me and my boring, normal Semblance did just fine, eh?" she said, her tone only just a bit more smug than she had intended it to be. Lumi stared with her lips pursed, clearly wanting to say some sort of retort. A part of Scarlet hoped she would say something, to give her an excuse to vent after the frustrating experience. However Lumi just huffed out her annoyance and turned away. The Sabyr, apparently named Sebastian, knelt down for Lumi to climb onto, Scarlet following suit after her new partner, only for the Summon to stand back up before she could climb up onto its back.
"You gonna offer me a ride?"
"Oh? I thought you didn't need the aid of me or my Semblance, surely you can walk without issue." Lumi said, no longer even bothering to look at Scarlet as the creature began to walk off just faster than a normal walking pace, leaving a once again infuriated Scarlet to follow with a scowl.
Three rounds tore through the Creep's skull in near immediate succession, the creature dropping and sliding along the ground before disintegrating, gunned down before it even had the chance to get into attacking range, a process that Jet calmly and methodically repeated with the three others that charged at him. Aim Hephestus, release a burst of fire right into the middle of the Creep's head to most effectively pierce the bony plating, and then repeat with the next one. After the three dropped dead, he waited just a moment, watching and listening for any others that might pop out from the bushes to ambush him, or if the noise had attracted any others. Satisfied that he was safe for the moment, he took a moment to check his progress on the Scroll, the little blinking dot indicating that he was halfway there already. Anyone else would have been pleased that things were going so smoothly. Jet however couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. This was an initiation, surely it was meant to be more challenging than a handful of some low level Grimm that could be casually gunned down. As the thought passed, the hairs on the back of his neck stood up as he swore he could feel the hot breath of something against his skin, turning around with his finger already resting on the trigger, ready to pump the creature full of Dust... only to be met with trees and foliage of the forest.
That… no that wasn't right, he knew he'd felt something. This wasn't just him being paranoid like Scarlet or Lupin would suggest. He knew what he'd felt… but there was nothing in sight, not even some displaced grass or fallen leaves to indicate there had been anything there. Had he really just imagined it? Reluctantly, he turned around, doing his best to ignore the feeling of eyes on the back of his head. Yet even as he glanced back, he found nothing.
He tried to take his mind off of it by thinking of something else, like the other students that he had somehow managed to completely avoid thus far. Was that weird? Realistically he should have run into someone else by now right? But he hadn't seen even the faintest sign of anyone, something that only bothered him more when he felt the same feeling of being watched from a moment ago. Moments after picking up the pace, the ground under him and the trees around him started to shake. An earthquake? Here? If Forever Fall got earthquakes, wouldn't the teachers have said something about that beforehand? Before he could question the sudden tremors any further, a yelp from above alerted him to a shape hiding in a nearby tree.
Reacting on instinct, Jet aimed up and opened fire on the branch, and as expected, a body dropped down yelling and flailing. What he didn't expect was the body to stop falling in mid air in front him. And, despite Jet still having his gun trained on him, Jin seemed less than bothered as he floated upside down just below eye level.
"Hey man!" The large Faunus smiled nonchalantly, having quickly recovered from the fall and raised his hand out in a fist. It took Jet a moment to register he was supposed to bump it, feeling a bit awkward he fist bumped the floating man, who grinned like an idiot afterwards. "Aren't you gonna ask me how it's hanging?"
Jet chose to ignore the pun, both because it was bad, and because he was floating, not hanging, instead just spinning the other boy into an upright position, who then dropped down casually as he let gravity claim him once more. Jet, now at least a bit more at ease, gave him a confused look, then looked up to the trees where he had accidentally knocked Jin down from.
"What were you doing in the trees? I could have shot you." Jet scolded his new friend, not really getting much in the form of a reaction other than a shrug.
"Oh, I figured it would be easier if I was moving through the trees, less chances of getting a Grimm's attention." Jin said without missing a beat. And Jet, despite wanting to, couldn't really find a flaw in the logic of it. Unless he wanted to try and make the argument that Jin somehow should've expected a paranoid fellow student to shoot the branches out from underneath him. Instead, the green haired boy just rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, avoiding his partner's gaze. Jin, seeing his reaction, just chuckled and gave his shoulder a light pat. "Hey no biggie, we're partners now, right? Gotta get used to each other's quirks at some point."
Right, quirks. That was certainly a word for it. But, if Jin was willing to let it go, then he wasn't going to push it. And besides, that feeling was back, and now that he wasn't on his own, it was as good a time as any to get to the bottom of it before it drove him mad.
"Do you feel that?" Jet asked, looking around the small clearing they found themselves in. Still, he saw nothing but the forest, and couldn't hear a thing, not even the distant sound of animals or combat, just the unnerving silence and the gentle howl of the wind in the trees. Jin just tilted his head, looking around and similarly finding nothing.
"Feel what? I couldn't really feel anything other than the shaking."
"Like we're being watched." Jet clarified, his voice hushed as he used his Semblance to swap Hephaestus's old magazine with a fully loaded one.
"Hey guys, over here!" an unfamiliar but friendly voice called out from their left, high pitched and excited, like that of a child. Taken off guard, but welcoming another ally, the boys turned around, only to find more of the emptiness that had surrounded them before. Jin stared on in confusion for a moment as Jet immediately went on guard, aiming in the direction they had been called from, taking a cautious step back. After all, in his 17 years of living, he was still yet to meet someone stupid enough to play games in the woods when they knew Grimm were active. While Jet couldn't hear the movement behind them, Jin did, the soft fluttering of feathers moving behind them catching his attention just in time to see a bony white blade slash at the back of Jet's neck. Having only a split second to react, the Faunus moved as fast as his legs would carry him, getting in front of the strike and focusing his Aura, tanking the blow and getting knocked right into Jet, sending both boys to the ground.
Looking up from their newfound position on the ground, they were greeted with their attacker, an avian Grimm that was nearly seven feet tall, even taller than Jin's full height. Then, as quickly as it appeared, it moved like a flash of black, leaping onto Jin with its claws aimed right for his throat. Again acting with no time to spare, Jin was forced to raise his arms and take the damage, the sharp talons wrapping around The Golden Path and sinking into his forearm. The poor boy didn't even have time to acknowledge his pain before he had to move again, weaving his head out of the way just in time to avoid his skull getting run through by the creature's beak. A series of three shots from Hephestus rang out, each bullet punching into the Grimm with deadly precision, the creature letting out a disturbingly human scream in response. It flapped its wings, trying to fly away, but Jet wasn't done, another three round burst striking its wing, causing it to return to the earth. He fired at the black shape on the ground, intending to kill it, only for each bullet to be deflected by the two scythe-like blades on its tail. Rustling its feathers, the Grimm watched them get back up, and yet despite its emotionless mask, both could feel anger and contempt radiating from the creature.
"Ha, you don't look so tough!" it called out in the same borderline hyperactive tone, a voice that clearly wasn't its own, sounding more akin to a teenage boy still going through puberty. The boys both reacted with a mixture of confusion, shock, and revulsion at the Grimm mimicking speech so easily and clearly.
"Did that thing just…" Jin asked aloud, mostly just to process the idea himself.
"Yeah, it talked." Jet responded with a shaky breath.
"Does that mean we can talk this out?" Jin asked, the honesty in his tone actually worrying Jet that the other boy might try to talk with the Grimm that had just so nearly cracked his skull open like a particularly annoying tree-nut. Thankfully, it stopped any attempt via interrupting with a lightning fast blow that Jin just barely managed to dodge. "Guess not!"
Jet tried his best to line up a shot, but the creature proved to be too fast as it darted to Jin, the creature jumping over a sweeping kick and pecking its sharpened beak at its target's head, which Jin managed to avoid by ducking between the beast's legs. Seeing his chance, Jet opened fire at full auto on the creature, a mere two shots managing to land, both of which only seemed to anger the creature as it spun its tail blades in a fan-like motion, preparing itself to deflect any further shots. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Jin moving in behind it, and wordlessly, a plan was formed between the two, Jet would continue to lay suppressive fire until Jin moved into range to take it out. Jet, rather than use his semblance to swap out the magazines, merely let the weapon run dry, the bird-like Grimm starting to move in for the kill the moment it heard the gun click. But, Jin was already on it, grabbing it by its normal, less deadly tailfeathers and pulling it back, delivering a crushing blow to its spine with a sickening crunch as he did so, resulting in it quite literally folding in on itself. Now that the monster's legs and bladed plumage were completely paralyzed and left with only one working wing, Jin raised his leg up over his head, readying an axe kick to the head to finally kill the damn thing.
"Please! I don't wanna di-"
It never got the chance to finish, Jin bringing the heel of his foot down, cracking its skull open in one blow.
Jet sighed, quite literally seeing the beast dead at Jin's feet. They should have felt relieved, but the nature of the now disintegrating Grimm left them with a lingering sense of unease. Jet had killed Grimm before, and he assumed Jin would've had to as well. But the more… insidious nature of this one was nothing like what he and Scarlet had practiced on in the woods back at Patch. His Mother and Father had warned him that there were Grimm out there that were far, far more dangerous than what he had experienced thus far, but seeing and hearing were two different things.
"So that thing's voice… Did it just make it up or was it from a person?"
Jet didn't want to admit it, but he knew Jin was onto something. It had clearly seen combat considering how it had fought the two of them, and the voice was only a few years younger than theirs…
"It's probably best not to think about it. Come on, we're not done just because we killed one Grimm."
Ruby watched on the screen as Luna dove for the ground, just narrowly avoiding the swipe of a Beringal's fist. If the launch was her favorite part, then this was her least favorite; seeing her students in danger and being able to do nothing to stop it. Even if they did actually need their assistance, she physically couldn't help them, instead left to watch from her seat in the back of the airship the students had been transported in with, now outfitted as an impromptu command center that she and Glynda sat in, monitoring the progress of their students. Focusing back on the task at hand, she watched as the white haired girl rolled onto her back, and with the aid of her Semblance, fired a laser from the gun, burning right through the creature and another member of its troop that had been charging along with it. She immediately fired again, but this time the laser was far weaker, only managing to burn the remaining Beringal, not even slowing it down.
Thankfully, an arrow pierced its back a moment later. The beast roared in pain in response before turning around, just in time for a massive metal club to be brought down onto its head, the sheer weight and power behind it reducing the simian Grimm's head to a black smear pockmarked with chunks of bone, rendering it dead before it hit the ground. Ruby found herself breathing a sigh of relief and leaning back in her chair as she watched three other students walk up to the scared looking moth, Juliet taking center stage and lifting her up to her feet by the collar of the fluffy jacket she others followed, Rosaria, Juliet's partner, and the girl whom had shot the arrow from an impressively large bow, a redhead frog Faunus named Elena, who was immediately being introduced to the girl they had rescued, and as such, was promptly assigned as her partner.
"Well I think that's the last of our partners set up." Ruby sighed, pressing a button on her scroll that locked the pairings into the school's systems.
"Good, now they just have to complete the examination and retrieve the relics." Glynda said matter of factly, too busy writing down notes and glancing at the screen currently watching Scarlet and Lumi as they made their way to their objective to properly acknowledge her subordinate. Ruby, despite her better judgment, found herself watching the feed as well. Scarlet was partnered with little Lumi, a girl she had been there for the birth of and had watched grow up along with her siblings. It just didn't sit right with her, even as she once again told herself that Scarlet was just a normal girl, with parents who just so happened to be terrorists who had maimed her sister and murdered her friend. No, it had nothing to do with her.
"The Mockingbird was a weird choice though." Ruby said, mostly just to make conversation and to try to keep her mind off of the idea of Scarlet on the same team, let alone being partners with Jaune and Weiss's beloved child. She was not looking forward to that conversation when it inevitably came time for it.
Yet, the response she got from Glynda wasn't the exactly the smalltalk she had been hoping for, the Headmistress abruptly putting down her scroll and turning to face her assistant with a confused and somewhat worried look.
"A Mockingbird?" Glynda's tone worried Ruby, not for the usual reasons of an impending scolding, but because she genuinely sounded confused about the presence of an abnormal Grimm in the initiation, something she should have known about as the one who had set the whole thing up.
"Well yeah, Jin and Jet just killed one a bit ago." Ruby said quickly as if trying to excuse herself, mostly on instinct. But again, the look on her friend's face was worrying, pulling herself together Ruby swallowed hard. "Why?"
"No Grimm were imported for this exercise. Why wouldn't I tell you about something like that?" The headmistress asked, looking up at Ruby's feed, walking on over and swapping through the different feeds.
"Do you… think it migrated, maybe? I mean it is an avian-type Grimm, and a pretty smart one at that, maybe it caught a ride on an airship?" Ruby asked, mostly just hoping for some sort of reasonable explanation for how a Grimm usually found on the other end of Sanus somehow ended up in their exercise.
"Perhaps, what else is out of place?"
"Well, a lot of our motion sensors are going off, even though there's no Grimm or students in the feed, and it seems like there's been a few earthquakes around the area too."
"Earthquakes?" Again, Glynda's attention was drawn in by her colleague's remark, raising an eyebrow. The Forever Fall Forest didn't just have earthquakes, not as long as she'd known the area in her many years of duty, and if it did, then the SDC wouldn't have designed one of their key cargo railways to cut right through it. Ruby was in no way comforted by the skeptical and somewhat worried look on her friend's face
"Glynda?"
"Keep an eye on the cameras, I want to know everything that's out of place the moment it happens, down to the millisecond." the elder huntress ordered, walking back over and taking her seat. Something was wrong, very wrong, and at the moment, it seemed like all she could do was watch.