Not a second after her feet touched ground, the Holosphere dissolved around Snow. She paused for a few seconds, taking in her surroundings. She had landed in the middle of a deciduous forest. The leaves above were speckled with the first hints of Early Autumn. In the sky above, holospheres still descended, drifting leisurely to the ground like snowfall.
Snow's head snapped to the left. Down a slight incline, toward where the trees opened to a decrepit model of an abandoned city. She began to sprint, elbows locked at a perfect right angle, pumping to shoulder level in front. Her eyes were fixed toward the city, locked on their destination despite the bobbing of her head.
Gunshots rang out in the forest behind her. From her side, a young man's shout. Yet she kept running. Her focus was finally broken by a violent clamor, a cracking and crunching of branches above. A shadow dropped from the canopy, scattering leaves and causing the ground beneath Snow's boots to tremor.
Snow skidded to a stop, reaching for the weapon at her belt. She stared down the animatronic Beringel, watching as it let out a ferocious scream. It pounded on its titanium-plated chest, and leapt at the white-haired huntress in training. At the last moment before a two-fisted pound split the dirt at her feet, Snow pivoted to the side.
As she turned, she pulled a silver handle from her belt. A straight, single-edge blade sprung forth from within, glowing with the pale blue of hard-light dust. She struck four times. Each slash was measured, lashing at the animatronic's vulnerable skin of a black, leathery cloth. She would turn her body and move her feet with each attack, a dance of aggression and grace in perfect balance. She ducked around the monster's swings for several seconds, slashing with her weapon's blade whenever she found an opening. An overhead strike was blocked by the creature. Snow's eyes flicked to the side, where another punch neared. She flipped backward and under it where she stood, landing on her feet and springing back toward the machine without missing a beat.
As she swung upward into the animatronic's underarm, glowing lines traced from the tip of her sword, forming the outline of an axe's head. A horrible metallic scraping filled the air, and sparks flung in all directions as Snow ripped her axe through the machine's shoulder socket. Its arm fell to the forest floor. Another axe swing, and it fell.
Snow began to sprint again, feeling a pulse of vibration from her holoband.
Lazula thrust Impetus through the chest of an oncoming Beowolf, sinking her weapon through to its golden crossguard. The guard was spread like a set of lustrous wings, one half curving in toward the broad, silver blade, and the other half perpendicular to it. A cobalt blue core ran down the middle of her blade, surrounded, like most of Lazula's attire, by gold.
Feeling the familiar pulse of vibration from her holoband, an indication she had defeated the animatronic and gained points, she flung the imitation beast from Impetus, and into another coming from her right side. The two collided with a crumbling wall, and were crushed beneath the rubble.
Another set of claws scratching on pavement, this time from Lazula's right. She blocked a swipe with Aegis, propelling the attack backward. She ducked down and twirled, sweeping the beast's feet out from under it. She leapt upward, leaving both her and her foe in the air before planting the heel of her boot in the creature's gut, and slamming it back to the pavement. It made a harsh cracking sound as it landed, and Lazula disposed of it with one final stab.
She turned on the balls of her feet, raising Aegis just in time to block the lightning-fast strike of a serpentine animatronic. The fangs, each the length of her forearm, hooked over the top of her shield. Lazula wrenched her arm upward to impale the roof of the snake's mouth with her shield's spikes. One of the snake's heads recoiled and the other lashed at her. She braced herself and raised her shield again. This time, she bashed forward, taking the entire impact into her arm.
Lazula activated her semblance: kinetic energy manipulation. Absorbing the impact, she turned her body and swung with Impetus. The animatronic's energy was channeled into her swing and amplified, easily bisecting her foe. A gale of wind ripped down the nearby alleyway with her swing, knocking a fire escape to the ground with an ear-splitting tumult, and knocking a Beowolf animatronic at the end of the alley to its back.
A white-haired girl, dressed in white and a delicate blue, drove her gleaming sword into its chest. Lazula watched it arch its back, and go limp. She sheathed Impetus, breathing out a muted smile as the dust settled, her eyes meeting with the colorless pair down the alley.
"So, I guess this makes us partners?" Lazula called.
Snow nodded, and walked toward Lazula.
Caspian jogged through the forest, one eye on the path ahead, and one on the screen he held in front of him. The only sounds in the thick pine woods were his feet on the ground, his breath, and the torrent of thoughts plaguing him. He flicked from the singles list, on which he was one of a handful who had not yet scored any points, to the doubles. Lazula, apparently, had paired with Snow. They were comfortably ahead of the second-place pair, little surprise to Caspian. He scanned the list, then flipped back to the singles bracket.
A quick moment of relief. Lilly, on pace to pass the exam, had not yet found a partner. If he could just find her, Sentinel Academy wouldn't be too bad. His mind began to slip to other scenarios. Rowan, Ichigo, and Laurel were all at varying positions in the singles list. It was still early in the exam, of course, but knowing the possibility of teaming with a friend existed, however small, gave him some peace of mind. Then, there was that squirrel faunus from the airship. Caspian never caught her name, but her brilliant smile had caught him off guard. She seemed nice, and was, well, really cute, Caspian thought.
What sounded like an Ursa's roar shook the faunus from Caspian's mind. He planted his feet in place and turned to the sound. From within a cluster of boulders, a huge black bear, with spines of titanium armor on face, arms, shoulders, and back, broke out on all fours. Pines and dirt tore up from the forest floor with each stride.
Caspian knew the beast was just an animatronic, programmed to sense aura and stop attacking before any real damage could be done. But still. The hulking black monster stood several feet taller than he, even running on four legs. Its snarls, claws, and teeth seemed real enough.
He reached behind his right shoulder, and unsheathed a thin, black cutlass with a trailing point, both edges of the blade gleaming with cobalt luster. As Caspian pulled the weapon from his back, he flipped a switch at the handle. The blade separated and folded in on itself to form an oversized handgun. Under Caspian's thumb, an oblong tract of steel rotated into place, finishing his weapon's transformation. "Undertow" was carved out of it, glowing blue from within like much of the muzzle.
He aimed between the animatronic's eyes. His finger began to tug on the trigger, but he halted, looking to the side.
Brown waves of aura crackling around her powerful legs like lightning, the squirrel faunus from the ship sprinted in. Her aura spread to her fist, and she snapped the animatronic's head to the side with a careening blow. The titanium plates covering the imitation Ursa's head cracked, and the branches of surrounding trees rippled in every direction with the shockwave.
She stood over the animatronic, shaking out her fist. Her scarf settled at her back, and her head turned. Her eyes met Caspian's.
"Oh, sorry! Was this one yours?" the girl asked. Caspian could hear footsteps.
"Oh- uh, it's okay. It's... still early," Caspian assuaged. His eyes fell to his Holoscreen, a dark blue "0" still beside his name. "But if we're partners, i-it won't matter, right?"
Her tail drooped a bit, as did Caspian's hopes. A girl with magenta hair strode into view, finally catching up with her partner.
"Ah, got it. No worries!" Caspian promised. He fidgeted with his Holoband, and began to turn around. He forced a smile. "I should be going now, good luck!"
"Good luuuuck!" she called after him.
Rain began to fall. Caspian could hear it on the canopy above, and every few seconds an intrepid drop would break through to land on him. The holosphere he had dropped in had prevented any view of the outside, and his father had been rather secretive about the layout, so as not to give his children an advantage. So, when he broke out into a clearing at the base of a jagged precipice, he was caught by surprise.
He could hear a peculiar scraping noise from above, and he looked to its source. A colossal arachnid, with a pair of mantis-like arms and white spires jutting out from its abdomen, clambered across the rock face, what Caspian guessed to be nearly a hundred feet up. "An Aracylla," Caspian thought, remembering his father's tales of the creatures from the lonesome woods of Northern Mistral. "This thing has to be worth at least forty points!"
The machine lost its footing for a second, sending a cascade of stones the size of Caspian's head to the ground nearby.
Caspian pulled Undertow from his back, and lined up a shot toward one of the grotesque animation's legs. The bullet of pure dust met its mark, and the spider lost its footing once more. Caspian's satisfied smirk dropped, and his eyes widened.
Instead of a clumsy fall to the ground below, the machine found its footing, let out a horrific screech, and pounced.
Caspian yelled with fright and dove to the ground, and felt the animatronic land behind him with a thunderous slam. He turned over, and was able to shoot out a couple of eyes before it sprang toward him. Caspian raised his armguard in an attempt to block a strike from the creature's mantis claws, but the lash propelled his arm back into his brow. He punched outward at the next strike, allowing him just enough time to slash once with Undertow and flip onto his feet. He reversed his grip, and sent the tip of his weapon through one of the Aracylla's many eyes. The beast recoiled in simulated agony, leaving an opening for Caspian to jump in and strike the delicate link between leg and body. With little resistance, the joint gave way and the creature screeched, front leg falling to the ground.
A shotgun blast rang through Caspian's ears, causing him to jump. The creature tensed up, before knocking Caspian aside and turning around on its remaining legs. It lurched forward to strike, but was met with a second blast. Barely visible under his foe's legs, Caspian saw a combat boot stomp on one clawed foot. A swing of something steel, and the leg separated from body.
With one final clash of steel on armor, the Aracylla's legs drew in toward its body, and began to curl.
"Hey, nicely done!" Caspian called.
A man appeared from behind the animatronic's body. Lean, several inches taller than Caspian, even with his slouch. The bridge of his long nose was pierced twice by a set of black triangle studs, the same piercings decorating his ears. His hair was shaved at the sides, spiked in front and tied into a ponytail in back. A wolf's tail flicked from behind him.
The man slung a heavy looking bat over his shoulder, and sunk his other hand into the pocket of his studded black jacket. He strolled around the disabled machine, and looked at Caspian with cold, dark eyes. He wasn't a cute girl, Caspian analyzed. Nor was he a girl at all. ...Nor was he particularly cute. But he took the animatronic down with relative ease, and looked tough.
"It doesn't look like you have a partner..." Caspian hinted.
"I don't. What's your name?" the man asked in reply.
"Caspian, and you?"
He projected the entrance exam's rankings from his school-issue Holoband, and scanned them, starting at the top. The longer he looked, the disdain etched upon his face mounted. "Caspian Skye?" he finally asked, looking up.
"Y-Yeah, that's me!"
The man switched off his Holoband, and turned around. "Good luck," he bid with a dismissing wave.
"Hey, wait!" Caspian pleaded. "The first person you lock eyes with is the one you partner with! Didn't you hear the Headmistress?"
"...Unless you have a compelling personal reason for not being able to work well with said partner," the faunus reminded curtly.
Caspian's shoulders sunk. "Do you... not trust humans? I know faunus are equal on paper now, but it's easier to change laws than people's minds."
"I'm not crazy about them, no." He turned back to Caspian. "There are plenty of faunus I don't care for either."
"Then... what's your reason?" Caspian asked.
"My 'compelling reason' is that you have zero points. Goodbye."
Caspian froze where he stood, pangs of indignation and embarrassment saturating his mind. He watched he wolf faunus disappear into the trees, never once turning over his shoulder. He noticed a hum from above him, and aimed Undertow to it's source.
It was a drone, displaying on its side the logo of Port Cyrreine's major television station. Caspian grit his teeth. His weapon's trigger begged to be pulled, but Caspian noticed a slight tremor to his hand.
With a defeated look, he sheathed his weapon.
The Headmaster had returned to his office to view the Final Entrance Examination. He sat at his desk with Headmistress Skye, watching the grid of screens displaying before him. Every minute, one would switch to focus on an applicant, or display a particularly active area of the testing grounds. The two murmured back and forth, the Headmaster occasionally entering in notes or tidbits of data into his computer.
The elevator door opened behind the two.
"I see Cas is having some rotten luck today, poor kid," a man's voice commented. It was not especially deep, but carried an inexplicable suave huskiness.
The Headmaster merely gave a nod and a grunt as reply.
"But, I'm guessing that isn't why you called me here," the voice prompted.
The Headmaster finally turned around to the source of the voice. It was a man about a decade younger than Headmaster and mistress, dressed in dark khaki pants, navy tie, and sky blue button-down with sleeves rolled to his elbows. His chocolate brown hair was swept back behind his ears. Though it looked to be recovering from being recently tied back, it had begun to spread out across his shoulders. A swath of stubble framed his agreeable face.
"I'll start with the good news, Douglas," Headmaster Skye addressed. "Lazula and Snow have teamed up, and are on pace to pass the exam."
"Good. And no surprise there," Douglas answered. He cracked a wry smile. "...And the bad news is why you called me directly to your office? Snow was expecting me down in the stands, you know."
"Exactly. I'm not sure what it is, but I have a bad feeling about today," the Headmaster explained.
Douglas's smile faded. He lowered his voice, though the three were very much alone. "Is it your semblance?"
The Headmaster nodded once, stitching his fingers together. "While I can't be sure, it's a possibility. Griswold has sent organds to help with security-"
"Organds?"
"I've deployed my huntsmen as well, and have safety measures prepared," the Headmaster assured. "If the Red Claw plans to mount another attack like the one last night, the Entrance Examination will be a difficult target. But still, I needed you here, out of harms' way."
"How sweet of you," Douglas teased. His voice hardened. "But your own children are out there."
"My children are armed, and skilled in combat," the Headmaster reminded. He turned back to the screens, their glow reflecting in his glasses. "We'll just have to see how this plays out."