At the time, the rain was a nice change for the village, a relatively small community separated by a sea of desert from the nearest settlement, as while their wells had served as a suitable water source for the most part, the drought had lasted far longer than they'd expected. Their crops were on the verge of death when a strange woman and her guardians came from across the surrounding sands, bringing rain along with them. Seeing rain for the first time in months, the children ran around giddily, playing some sort of game that seemed to just be a thinly veiled excuse to jump into puddles and splash anyone they could. One child, a nine year old girl by the name of Khamsin, had overheard her father, their village's leader, personally thanking the woman for bringing the rain to them. She didn't know how someone could make rain, but her older sister Sandra said it was because the woman was magic. Stunned by this, she ran right up to the woman in disbelief, asking outright if it was true. The woman looked around when asked, checking to see if anyone was watching, before kneeling down to Khamsin's eye level and drawing back her hood, revealing her dirty blonde hair pulled back into a tight bun and violet eyes, before whispering into Khamsin's ear that she was. The girl was already in awe, so when she was offered to see a magic trick with the only condition being to keep it a secret between the two of them, she jumped at the opportunity. For a brief moment, the older woman closed her eyes, her expression one of relaxed focus, before opening them, igniting a heatless flame that burned the same vivid amethyst color as her eyes. The girl squealed as she reached out, watching the purple flame dance around her finger with a strange tingly feeling. After that, the woman introduced herself as Durga, and started sharing a story with Khamsin about her daughter, telling her how she was a lot like her older sister at her age. Unfortunately, her new friend couldn't stay very long as she had a very important job. She was a Huntress, like her Mom, and also Dad before he had to retire, and traveled around Vacuo to help people. While she was sad to see the woman go, she was still happy that she got to meet her and play in the rain she'd magically brought.

That was three weeks ago, and now Khamsin and her sister hid from the roaring beasts just outside their home, huddled and holding each other in the closet of their parents' room as Dad grabbed his weapon from its hiding place. It had all happened so fast, one minute she was eating supper with her family, sans her mom, who had been called away on a mission a few days ago, and then suddenly there were screams that were swiftly silenced, and the piercing sound of gunshots from outside. The retired Huntsman jumped to his feet, immediately knowing things were worse than they seemed. He could tell from the snarls and roars that it was a Grimm attack, but there were no sirens, no warnings. Grimm didn't sneak into villages in the dead of night, the ones wandering the dunes of Vacuo weren't that smart. Something was undeniably wrong, but that could wait, his girls were terrified, making them a beacon for the beasts just outside their door. He pulled them into his arms and ran into the master bedroom, closing the closet as something broke through their front door. He scrambled to get his gun ready, but what followed wasn't a charging beast, it was a calm and light set of footsteps, followed closely by a heavier set.

By the time the first intruder reached the bedroom door, he had steadied an archaic shotgun-sword hybrid level with her head and fired as soon as he saw her, yet with inhuman speed, she sidestepped the blast. From their spot in the closet, the girls could do nothing but watch in horror, seeing an unknown figure, clad in a white cloak now dripping with blood, easily evading bullets. Her dark arms were exposed, revealing a series of serpentine tattoos that curled down and around her arm, as she pulled a blade from her belt. In the children's eyes, she was death itself, which only made it more horrifying when she dodged the second, strangely weaker blast and threw her knife into his hand, pinning it against the wall with a dull thunk. His scream of pain masked the sound of Sandra's gasp of horror and gave her just enough time to cover her sister's whimpers.

Now locked to the wall, the man panted, trying desperately to gain control over the agony spreading through his arm. Fear and confusion set in, his Aura should have protected his hand from that, sure, he may not have had the most plentiful or dense Aura, but he hadn't burnt an iota in months, and yet her blade carved through it effortlessly. There was no time to try and figure out what she'd done to him though, as she entered the room proper and walked right up to him. Following her through the door was a tanned figure, sporting a once regal looking set of matching blue vest and pants, now withered and dulled by age and filth. His body showed extensive scarring, some patches of skin and muscle along the upper arms and chest having been replaced by a pulsating black mass, yet, despite that, it was his head that stood out the most. All that could really be made out of his face was the outline of a jaw veiled by greasy and matted black hair, the rest obscured by a bony white mask in the shape of an inhumanly exaggerated skull, each contour and angle sharper than the ancient looking sword he loosely carried, topped with a set of six horns that pointed straight into the air in some crude mockery of a crown. At least, he thought it was a mask, because as the figure stepped forward, he realized the mask had been grafted into the man's flesh, the two becoming one.

"You're going to die today, but you can have a peaceful death. I can do it in such a way that you'll be gone before you can even feel my blade pierce your heart." Hearing the certainty in her voice as she spoke of his death, all he could think of were his girls hidden away in the closet just a few feet away. He hoped they couldn't see what was about to happen to him, that they'd stay hidden long enough for this butcher and her pet monster to leave. As he tried to focus however, she grabbed him by the chin, pulling his face to look right into his eyes.

"Or I can let this thing twist your mind until you tell us either way, and then I'll let it have fun finishing you off." Despite threatening him, the venom in her tone was fully reserved for the abomination behind her, though if it cared about or even understood her obvious disgust, it didn't show it, the beady red dots that burned within the hollow sockets of its mask remaining focused solely on him. "Tell us where Durga went."

She spoke with such glee that the man could feel his very soul shiver, yet he knew it wasn't at the idea of killing him, her expression was cold as she impaled his hand to the wall, and even now, she just looked at him as though he was wholly unimportant to her even as she interrogated him, but the moment the woman's name left her lips there was this hunger- no, it was more like a sick sort of lust in her eyes at the prospect of getting her hands on her.

"Even if I knew what you were talking about, I'd never give someone up to a monster like you."

"That's a shame, I was hoping you'd make the right decision." She hardly seemed to care one way or the other, pulling her blade from his hand and letting him crumple to the floor, watching disinterestedly as he clutched his wound to his chest before speaking in a bored tone. "Jax."

The hybrid marched forward, grabbing the man by his hair and slamming his skull against the wall. It wasn't necessary in the slightest, Jax's Semblance was more than capable of overpowering the man's Aura, it was an act of pure sadism from the Grimm puppeteering Jax's body. Despite the unnecessary treatment, she did nothing to stop it, in fact, she hoped the Grimm's host could see what it was doing, this was who Jax was deep down anyway. He could make whatever claims he wanted about his 'rightful place' and his 'birthright', but he was always a monster who ruined the lives of others for his own selfish gain, and this way, there was no way for him to deny it. She'd seen it firsthand, and Tyrian had seen it the moment they'd met, at least now he was useful instead of just using others to further his own selfish agenda. After a moment of contact, the man's pale yellow Aura turned white, and he stopped struggling. He was released from Jax's grasp a moment later, turning to face his attacker calmly.

"Now, let's try this again. Where is Durga?" This time, there was no resistance or denial in his body, speaking in an eerily calm tone.

"Eastward. She didn't share much about her next location, but she could be anywhere between Kenyte and Vacuo City."

"Did she mention the capital?"

"Yes, she has a daughter who lives there."

"I see, thank you." Henna sighed. It wasn't much to go on, if she was traveling by foot, she was still in the dunes, and if not, then she was likely already in the capital. Either way, it meant the woman was inaccessible to her at the moment. She'd take Jax to Kenyte and scout the area out, as while this Maiden had held her power longer than the other three, she wasn't anywhere near as prepared for imminent danger. She had almost certainly heard of the threat Salem posed to them, but the other three Maidens had lived it, and as a result, she made small mistakes, like the 'sudden rain' that led her to this village. She'd slip up again, and when she did, she'd leave a trail to find. Having gotten everything she needed, she begrudgingly turned to the masked man, siccing him on his prey. "He's all yours."

Back in the closet, the girls thankfully couldn't see what the masked man did to their father, but Sandra could piece it together as they heard something heavy get thrown to the floor, followed shortly by another similar sound pouncing onto the first. The first few blows were heavy and meaty, but after the third, a wet crunch could be heard with each impact. Five hits later, the strikes lost their crunch, instead just sounding damp and goopy. Khamsin couldn't hold back her tears, and while she couldn't figure out what had happened as clearly as her sister, she knew something very bad had just happened to her daddy. She wanted someone, anyone to come and help. Mostly, she wished her mommy was home to help, or maybe Durga, these bad people were after her, but they weren't magic, she could beat them! From the limited view of the keyhole, the older sister saw Jax rise to his feet, turning around and giving her a good look at her dad's killer as his blood dripped off of its mask, but what scared her most were the small pinpricks of crimson light staring right into her soul. For a moment, she wondered if she'd made a noise, or failed to keep her sister quiet, but then she remembered the horrible truth, it didn't matter how well they hid or how quiet they were, it could still feel her fear.

"Khamsin, run!" she shouted, throwing the door open as she pulled at the pole keeping the hangers attached out of the wall. It wasn't the best plan, but in the moment, with that thing moments from revealing them to its master, it was all she could think of. Readying her meager Aura, Sandra tried to get in between the two and her sister as she ran for the front door. The woman was closer, so naturally, she was who the girl swung at first, only for her to lazily raise her arm in the way, the makeshift weapon bouncing right off, the metal having bent slightly where it made contact with her arm. Then the hybrid moved, jumping over the bed to get at Khamsin, and, distracted by the danger her sister was in, she took her eyes off of her opponent for just a moment, suddenly feeling weaker and being pushed into the wall, her head hitting it first as she slid down in a daze. Khamsin only made it a few feet before Jax had reached her, pinning her to the ground with its free arm as the mask partially opened up to reveal dry, broken lips that snarled at her from above, making her freeze up in terror, unable to do anything but cry as it descended on her.

"Harm her, and I'll remove your fingers one by one." As Henna hissed, the beast stopped, not out of fear of the torment it would face, it cared little for the pain its host would feel, just as it didn't care about the horror he felt being a passenger in his own body, but it did relent at the orders of its current master, instead only using as much force as necessary to hold her still. Still dazed, Sandra started to hyperventilate as Henna walked closer to her sister, she had just lost her father, and now in her very soul, she felt she was going to watch her sister be killed as well. But Henna had no intentions of harming either of the girls, instead, she kneeled down and gently stroked the nine year old's cheek, wiping away her tears and leaving a streak of her father's blood along her soft skin.

"Khamsin? That's your name, right? Don't worry, you and your sister are in good hands."

"They gave us babysitters, I can't believe this!" Lumi loudly complained, not particularly caring who heard her whining as she and her team walked with BRST, or half of it at least, as Blitz had sped off to go collect their final member, leaving the rest of their little entourage to kill time in the shade.

"I can, we've been getting into trouble almost nonstop since we passed the initiation." Jet countered, not bothering to list off the various incidents they were involved in, whether directly or indirectly caused, though for some reason, Lumi seemed even more annoyed than she already was as he pointed that out. Of course she knew that this was the case, it just didn't make her feel any better. Okay, maybe there were understandable reasons for their arrangement, but still, couldn't he just let her vent?

"I wouldn't say we're babysitting you." Ruta began, trying to lessen the tension.

"I would." Taimur interrupted matter of factly. There was no ill will or resentment in her tone, though Ruta still winced at her friend's bluntness as it completely undercut the tone she'd been trying to set.

"Well, okay, we kinda are. But it's not like we're gonna force you guys to go to bed by nine or punish you for doing things you aren't supposed to, we're just here to help you guys out if you need it!" The explanation she gave worked for the most part to raise their spirits back up, clearly outlining to SJJL that they had no plans to be overbearing nannies, not that it was ever really on the table in the first place, but they weren't from Vacuo, so it was a reasonable concern. Even still, Scarlet couldn't help but to be a little bothered, though not by the girls themselves, they seemed nice enough. No, the source of the lingering burden on her mind was that this whole situation was happening because of her. Like Jet had said, there had been a bunch of incidents involving their team, but the part he'd been nice enough to leave out was that, maybe aside from Alaska fucking with them, none of it would have happened without her. What was worse was that she'd already dragged two whole teams into it, BGEL and JWEL, and now she was dragging another team into it through BRST. So, rather than join Lumi and complain, she kept her mouth shut. It didn't take too long after that for Blitz to return, now accompanied by a young woman who SJJL assumed was the last member of BRST.

"Guys, meet Sarasvati, our missing piece!" Blitz announced, holding her arms out to present the woman, who chuckled awkwardly at the introduction. Like most people in Vacuo, her skin was on the darker side, though less due to tanning, and simply just due to having a darker complexion, though it was more of a soft brown when compared to her pitch black hair, which was so long that it reached all the way down past her hips. In contrast, she wore a sleeveless white dress that hugged her figure tastefully, highlighted with red gems along her hips and neck.

"You're making me sound like some kinda prize. Sorry I'm late guys, I was on a call with my mom and got sidetracked when all that stuff started. Like Blitz said, my name is Sarasvati, it's so nice to meet you all." She said, waving at the Beacon students with a bright smile, one that was returned warmly enough, even if Scarlet was clearly just phoning it in. The redhead sighed, hoping she didn't come across as too moody, it was just poor timing, not her fault or anything. Maybe she could make up for it later… Damn it, no, she was not gonna be in a funk this whole trip, and why? Because other people were up her ass about her mom and dad? Fuck that, she could have fun, they all could, and in fact, now that she thought about it, this was the perfect opportunity for The Voice. Standing up, she put on a sly, confident smirk before strutting over, making an ever so slightly dramatic entrance as team leader, holding her hand out before speaking in a practiced low, sultry, and smooth voice.

"The pleasure is all mine, I'm Scarlet." Much to the young Faunus's delight, Sarasvati immediately straightened up, obviously commanded into respect by her tone.

"What's with the sex voice?" Taimur whispered over to her teammates, looking to the rest of SJJL for an answer. Lumi was too busy groaning in secondhand embarrassment over the shameless display of what she could only describe as her partner's 'come hither' voice, while Jet immediately tried to hide his cheeks after feeling them heat up, muttering to himself that he had to break it to her how she sounded talking that way, leaving Jin as seemingly the only one unbothered enough by Scarlet's tone to explain.

"She uses it to try and sound cool." Jin quietly explained, remembering the awkward introduction she'd had with his aunt, silently rooting for her to leave a better impression this time. Unfortunately, he'd spoken just a bit too loud, alerting the newcomer to the act. Scarlet froze, her face as red as her hair. So much for that plan.

"Aww, that's adorable." Blitz cooed, only making Scarlet blush more. Thankfully, Sarasvati didn't comment on it, instead finishing the handshake and focusing on getting a better look at her, her eyes pausing once she reached her hips, particularly at the two swords hanging off her sides.

"Those swords…" Scarlet tensed as she looked down at Bleed and Wilt, suddenly feeling so stupid as to think her swords, especially the one that had belonged to her dad, would go unnoticed. But rather than tense up or step away, her crimson eyes shot back up to her own with a mixture of curiosity and excitement. "They're Mistralian, right? Are you from Mistral?"

"No, but my mom is. I've never been there though, Jet and I grew up on an island off the coast of Vale." Scarlet answered quickly, not really thinking as she answered.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have assumed. I've just always wanted to go to Mistral, I've been told it's beautiful." That… wasn't what she'd been expecting, but not in a bad way. She could practically feel the worry lift off of her shoulders as her concern at the idea of getting recognized as a terrorist's kid for what was probably the thousandth time at this point faded as she excitedly detached Bleed from her hip, raising the weapon to show it off.

"Nah, don't worry about it, I wanna visit one day too. Besides, their weapons are cool as hell!" she declared. Again, thinking Mistralian weapons were cool wasn't lame, especially not in her case since she was half Mistralian, no matter what that half-pint hater Elizabeth said!

"So, where do y'all wanna go? Assuming you don't wanna get lost again?" Blitz asked in a playful tone. SJJL looked amongst each other, and after a moment of mostly silent conversation conveyed with looks and small huffs, Scarlet spoke up.

"Well, where do you guys recommend we go?" She still wasn't going to admit they'd gotten lost, and it was pretty clear the rest of them would rather follow someone familiar with the area, so she relented and handed control of the rest of their day over to their guides.

"Oh! I know this really cool arcade, it's got a whole bunch of retro games!" Blitz suggested, the idea getting some traction with Scarlet and Jin after she declared she'd kick his ass in Dishonored Warriors 3.

"You just wanna make sure you still have the high score on Grimm's Tears." Ruta pointed out, nudging her leader, who scoffed, but didn't outright deny the claim. Though, considering only half of SJJL and one of their own seemed interested in the idea, they went back to brainstorming for a place that would be a better introduction to the city.

"Oh, how about The Lookout?" Sarasvati added. The other girls of BRST all immediately recognized the name, and it didn't take more than a couple seconds of excited looks for them to agree that's where they were taking SJJL. Looking back over at their juniors, they saw the Beacon team was understandably confused for the most part. Ah, right, they didn't know what that was.

"Trust us, it's cooler than it sounds, it's more like a rooftop club than anything, they just don't serve booze." Ruta said, though it didn't seem like Scarlet needed much convincing as the moment she heard "club", she was visibly excited. Jet was a bit more apprehensive, seeing as the last time he'd gone to a club, he'd gotten so drunk he blacked out, but the promise of no alcohol eased those worries. Lumi, however, was unconvinced, but after turning to Jin and seeing a similar excitement to Scarlet's on his face, she decided it didn't sound too bad.

"Alrighty then, The Lookout it is. C'mon, it's just down th- oof!" In her excitement, Blitz hadn't been watching where she was going, and as a result, had bumped right into someone, nearly sending both of them to the floor. That someone, now identifiable to the rest as a boy around their age, recovered quickly with an irritated growl. He wore an all black getup, including a short-sleeved leather jacket, t-shirt, and combat pants, and even the zweihänder that was slung over his left shoulder was made of some black metal. The only major pops of color in his appearance beyond the oppressive black came from his remarkably pale skin, and a red fabric scarf that wrapped around his neck, with even his hair and eyes shaded a deep midnight. For a moment, she was apologetic before realizing who exactly was infront of her, and her tone immediately turned cold and standoffish, much to the surprise of SJJL who, so far, had only seen Blitz act positively. However, this boy seemed to just immediately bring out the negativity in her. "Siyah."

"Blitz." he responded in a similarly cold tone, laced with minor amusement, taking a relaxed stance as his team caught up with him, consisting of three women. Two of the three newly arrived girls immediately ran to his side, sensing the possibility of an impending confrontation, while the remaining girl was substantially less concerned, instead continuing to draw on some sort of paper. Despite one of his teammates sporting a mixture of annoyance and concern at him, while the other's eyes were wide with excitement, he himself remained relaxed and laid back as he looked past Blitz and over at SJJL, before smirking back at his fellow Vacuan. "So, Theo's got you on babysitting duty? How'd you fall so hard from his graces for that to happen?"

Jin, sensing the tension, stepped forward, coughing to get their attention as he held out his hand, hoping that they could resolve this before it got out of hand.

"Nice to meet you, I-" He'd hardly gotten started before the smaller boy smacked his hand away, an unimpressed scoff escaping his lips as Jin recoiled in surprise. It suddenly became very clear to him and his team why Blitz didn't like this guy.

"Don't bother, we're just scoping out the competition, and I gotta say, I ain't impressed." Siyah practically spat at them. In response, Lumi let out a particularly insulted sounding huff and Scarlet could practically feel her resisting the urge to ask him if he knew who he was talking to. Normally, she'd tease her friend over this, but for now, the small look of hurt on Jin's face from the insult kept her mad enough to let it slip by.

"Wow, so you've gone from just being an ass to being a creep spying on people." Taimur retorted, calling them out to little effect as she practically went ignored. What Siyah and his team couldn't ignore however was Scarlet walking right up to him and giving him a surprisingly strong shove, causing him to stumble back. While momentarily surprised, he smirked as he regained his balance, which just served to piss her off even more.

"Just who the hell do you think you are? He was just being nice, jackass!" she shouted in defense of her friend, not noticing or even caring about the small scene being made around them that finally got the attention of Siyah's last teammate.

"Wait, what's going on?" the girl asked. Like Scarlet, she was a Faunus with horns sprouting from under her hair, and seemed to be about the same height too, though her horns were a little shorter, giving Scarlet the overall advantage in that department, though that was where the similarities ended. Whereas Scarlet's ebony horns arose from a sea of red that cascaded down her shoulders and ceased just at the small of her back and had a pale complexion, the newcomer's horns were an off white, and emerged from a tousled nest of shoulder length blonde hair loosely tied back into a low ponytail, with skin so dark it was a scant few shades off from black. Now properly looking at the scene, the Faunus's golden eyes met Scarlet's amber ones as she got in between her and her leader. "Siyah, are we fighting these guys? Do I gotta punch the redhead in the tits?"

"Nah Lamia, they aren't gonna be trouble." Whiplash hit Scarlet hard at that, first getting ready to defend her boobs from Lamia, who definitely knew how much that would hurt if that was her first instinct, to then going back to being insulted as the punk who'd gone out of his way to size her and her team up just dismissed them entirely. Before she could even think about retaliating though, she was quickly pushed back into anger as the little shit in the red dress stuck her tongue out from behind Siyah. Then, just before she could throw a punch and see just how much the other horned girl liked getting hit in the tits herself, Jet stepped forward, having heard enough himself.

"Big words coming from an edgelord like you."

"Oh, that's cute, you think you know me." Siyah chuckled, taking a step closer, clearly trying to use his height to intimidate him into backing up. Unfortunately for him, Jet wasn't scared so easily, rolling his eyes in response.

"I know that anyone who wears all black in the desert cares too much about looking cool for their own good." Growing bored with the verbal back and forth, Siyah took a page from Scarlet's playbook and shoved the smaller boy back, Jin reacting in time and managing to catch his partner before he hit the dusty cobblestone below. For Scarlet though, this was the last straw, stepping forward and grabbing the hilt of Wilt with a low growl. Rather than back down though, Siyah reached over his shoulder and grabbed his zweihänder, similarly ready to strike, but not before taking one last jab at Jet.

"What's wrong, you need your girl to fight for you?" Before Scarlet could properly wipe that stupid smirk off of his face, Blitz suddenly got in between them in a flash of light, a stern look on her face as she glanced between the two first years. With a huff, both Scarlet and Siyah stepped back, letting their weapons rest as their teammates breathed a sigh of relief, save for one member.

"Oh, they're fun, I wanna play with them!" the smallest of their group, the girl in the red dress, said. Like Lamia, her skin was naturally on the darker side, but was far lighter by comparison, instead being closer to Jet's skin tone. Her wide emerald green eyes shined with mischief as she looked the group over, relishing in the possibility of this turning into a brawl despite their disadvantage. Seeing that her leader was genuinely considering it, the last member of his team, who until now had been dead silent and lounged in the background of the argument, stepped forward. Now in the focus, they could see she was tall, almost as tall as Siyah, her skin lightly tanned in a way that suggested it was moreso for personal beauty rather than from actively spending time in the sun, and her face was framed with a pair of designer sunglasses crowning her blonde bob of hair.

"Not now you idiot, another fight and we're suspended, remember?" The man groaned, muttering to himself about the blonde being a nag, then without even acknowledging BRST or SJJL, waved for his team to follow him as he turned to walk off. Lamia and the other girl immediately followed, with the one in the red dress taking one last chance to stick her tongue out and mock them, all while the one who'd stepped in between them sighed and turned back, giving SJJL and BRST a half-hearted apology. "Sorry about them, our dear leader has been a terrible influence on Alyx. I'm sure you know how men can be."

The way she had said 'men' rubbed Scarlet the wrong way, it was like she'd tried to spit the word out before she could taste it on her lips, but her comment about suspension reminded Scarlet that her team also had a history of fights, and that getting into another one right in front of the people most likely assigned specifically to keep that from happening on their first day in a new Kingdom probably wasn't a good look.

"Uh yeah, sure, you have a good one… uh."

"Beryl." she said, quickly introducing herself without any fanfare or warmth before turning to leave, clearly not caring at all about actually making peace, and moreso just trying to de-escalate the current situation before she got dragged into a suspension, and, seeing as she'd done just that, she turned and followed her team, similarly without so much as a glance back at them, leaving them all standing there with a sour taste in their mouths.

"So are all the teams here made up of assholes?" Jet asked, looking to Blitz, who dropped her cold stare as soon as the team was out of their line of sight.

"No, it's just SABL. Honestly, even with them, it's mostly just Siyah and Alyx, the other two just get dragged into it." Jet nodded in silent response. It sounded a lot like SLVR to him, with Alaska and Aethelflad being the instigators while Vera and Loyal were just along for the ride, though in that particular case, he was pretty sure Loyal was just going along with their schemes less because she was dragged into them, and more because she was asked to nicely.

"Come on, why're we acting like the mood's dead? We've still got to show off a super cool hang out spot!" Ruta said, grabbing Jin by the wrist and dragging him along, her plan working perfectly as the others followed suit. Lumi was the first to follow, particularly calling out that he could walk at his own pace as Scarlet just laughed.

"Are you sure we're not lost?" Belka asked, staying as close to Goose as she could without actually clinging to the taller girl like some kind of lifeline. It wasn't that she thought her partner would lie about such things, it was just that she wouldn't put it out of the question that she might just be mistaken. Sure, Elizabeth and Lao trusted her, but quite frankly, they hadn't been robbed in the middle of the street before, and while it may have been insensitive or whatever, the people surrounding them all looked like ruffians regardless and she was not going to be robbed if they'd accidentally wandered into the bad side of the Kingdom! Goose, however, saw nothing to be concerned about with their surroundings, but seeing her friend was clearly a bit worried, she decided to help ease her worries, pointing out a familiar building she'd seen plenty of times.

"Yup, that's the comic shop right over there I was telling you guys about!" BGEL's leader followed her index finger over to a small selection of buildings, squinting as she tried to make out which of the various sandstone buildings she was referring to. She had a feeling it was the one with the brightly colored red banner on its corner, but it just as easily could have been the one with the green and purple striped awning hanging over its door, or the one simply named 'Marbel' with flashy eclectic styled lettering. The point was, she couldn't tell, and honestly, doubted her partner could either.

"How can you tell? All these buildings look the same."

"Really helping break the stereotype that Atlesians are uncultured, huh Gele?" Elizabeth groaned behind her, glancing around embarrassed as several bystanders had overheard the claim and had turned to give a judging glance at the teens. Belka, however, rolled her eyes, seeing no problem with what she'd said. After all, it wasn't like she was wrong.

"It's not my fault they make all the buildings look so samey, I'd say the same thing about Mistral and their architecture." Elizabeth gave up hearing that, she just didn't have the energy to deal with someone so confidently wrong, so she just walked past her.

"Should I be offended by that?" Lao asked, leaning in towards Goose as if to be discrete, but forgetting to whisper, and thus defeating the actual purpose. Meanwhile, she shrugged, not particularly offended herself, even if Belka was clearly wrong.

"Not if you don't want to be." Before the discussion could go any further, Lao noticed something, a boy around their age, heading straight over to them. He was clearly another outsider from the kingdom considering his outfit, a navy blue tailored vest and tie with matching dress pants, a crisp long-sleeved white button-up shirt, and a pair of gloves with glowing neon blue lines that ran along the fingers. His hair was a faded shade of blue jade, neatly styled to favor his right side. He couldn't see the man's eyes due to the sun hitting his glasses in a way that reflected off the lenses, obscuring them, however, from the way the man's face was scrunched up and the way he walked, he was clearly irritated over something, a fact that caused Lao to go on alert when he realized the boy was heading right for Belka when he reached out towards her back.

"There you are, what did we say about running o-" Immediately assuming the worst, he stepped between his leader and the newcomer, planting his hand onto his chest and pushing him back a few feet. The irritation on his face quickly gave way to confusion, and, lifting the glasses up, the man blinked. Belka, suddenly realizing how close she'd been to being grabbed, reached back and grabbed Morgan, not yet drawing it, but ready to at a moment's notice. Before the situation could escalate any further though, a smaller boy with a slim dark orange cat tail ran up, grabbing the man and pulling him back.

"Woah, Anga, that ain't our girl." he chuckled with a nervous, boyish voice as he tried to settle the situation before it went any farther. While he wore a disarming smile on his freckled and lightly tanned face, the look in his eyes gave away that he was far more anxious than he acted, rubbing the back of his head, further messing up his unkempt hair that matched the same shade as his tail, while his bright green eyes matched with his cat eared hoodie, underneath which he wore a similar shirt and vest combo as his friend, though with an orange bowtie and suspenders attached to a pair of shorts.

"Sorry about that, your weapon looks a lot like his partner's." he explained, though as he looked BGEL over, a small smile crept up along his lips. "That, or he just wanted an excuse to talk to a team of pretty girls."

The compliment was met with mixed reactions, Lao just stayed his normal blank self, not bothering to correct the boy, Goose smiled, just happy to be complimented. Belka, meanwhile, rolled her eyes at the lack of subtlety, and seeing this, Elizabeth snickered, but mostly ignored it, instead looking over to the boy's companion, who looked oddly familiar.

"Amin? Is that you?" she asked, the connection clicking as she recognized the boy for who he was, Anga similarly realizing he had met the girl before him already, several times in fact.

"Ironwood, apologies, the sun was in my eyes. Like Kenneth said, I thought her weapon was my partner's, they're remarkably similar."

"Oh, no, it's fine, you guys can have Belka." she said, and, judging by the irritated scowl being shot her way, her aunt didn't appreciate the joke, though that just made it funnier to her. The cat Faunus smiled as he stepped forward, opening his mouth to say something before his expression suddenly shifted slightly and he closed his mouth, reconsidering his words before starting over.

"Oh, you're just giving her away? But surely a girl like her has to be taken already." Already in a bad mood, the boy blatantly making a move on her with his smooth tone of voice and inviting smile did very little to help, especially since he was assuming she was taken, which he was right about, and still acting that way. Not to mention, why did he just assume she was taken, was he implicitly calling her easy!?

"And what exactly is that implying?" The boy paused, shifting his jaw awkwardly before looking over to Anga and shrugging.

"Okay, I don't know how to talk to this one." The other boy seemed to be about as amused as she was, rolling his eyes with a groan at the boy's antics. Goose, seeing her partner doing less than great at making her own first impression, walked up and rested her arm on Belka's shoulder.

"That's okay, she's just a bit prickly at first, I promise she's nice."

"Well if nothing else, she keeps good company, that's good enough for me." Bouncing right back after his failure with Belka, he stepped up, holding his hand out for Goose to shake. "It's Katt by the way, Kenneth Katt."

"A cat Faunus with the last name Katt? Isn't that rather on the nose?" Lao asked, genuinely not sure if it was supposed to be some kind of joke or not.

"I dunno, I think it's kinda funny." Goose added, shaking the boy's hand excitedly.

"Coming from a cutie like you? I'll take that as a compliment." The boy said, leaning in with a little wink, making Goose giggle. Liz raised an eyebrow at her aunt's reaction, she'd thought it would take more than just the bare minimum of flirting to get a reaction out of her but apparently not. Then again, now that she was thinking about it, she'd never seen her be flirted with before, or show any interest in anyone else for that matter. She supposed it didn't really matter, though she'd have to apologize to the boy's teammates if she had to put him in the hospital for making too far of an advancement on her naive aunt. A bit of motion behind the two boys caught her attention as a third figure, a woman, walked up to the group. Now it made sense, when the sun had gotten in Anga's eyes, he'd been separated from his team.

"Liz? Hey, I wasn't expecting to bump into you so soon!" She recognized the girl approaching rather easily, wearing a navy blue hoodie that obscured her shoulder length brown hair, and sporting skin like caramel. Her most striking feature though was her silver eyes, a rare color that, so far, she'd only ever seen on two other people, Assistant Headmistress Rose and one of their caravan guides.

"Calavera, how have you been?" The newcomer bristled for a brief moment, going unnoticed by those around her.

"It's Mercedes, remember? Actually, please just call me Mercy. And yeah, I'm good." she corrected kindly, but firmly. This time, Elizabeth caught the sour tone she spoke with, but thought nothing of it. In truth, she wasn't exactly fond of the overly formal and stiff greeting she'd just given either, it was just so drilled into her head by her parents that she couldn't help but to fall back on it as an old habit.

"You two already know each other?" Ken asked, his curiosity peaked at this coincidence.

"Her and Anga's father served under mine until he retired and General Polendina took over the position." the small girl answered matter of factly, as though it wasn't a neat coincidence. He waited a moment for the pygmy girl to elaborate, but got nothing in return, that apparently being the extent of their history.

"There you guys are, I was starting to think you le-" a fourth voice called out from behind Mercy. Pushing her way to the front, the girl was clearly a huntress like the rest of her team, wearing a simple white shoulder-less dress under a black corset. Her hair was styled in a short light brown bob, and like Kenneth, she was a Faunus, sporting a pair of floppy dog ears that shot up the moment she laid eyes on BGEL's leader. "Belka!?"

"Whiskey!?" Belka was similarly pleasantly surprised, and after both letting out a dramatic gasp, they squealed in unison, immediately rushing in and fretting over one another. Elizabeth winced inwardly, it was frankly the most girly thing she'd seen from Belka, and that was saying a lot considering how she acted like a dainty little princess most of the time. At a glance, it was easy to see how Anga had mistaken Belka's weapon for hers though, as design wise, they were practically identical.

"Everyone this is Whiskey, my best friend!"

"Guys this is Belka, my best friend!"

The girls announced to their respective teams in unison, showing each other off like prized gemstones to be marveled at. They received various polite greetings in return, though Elizabeth had to bite her tongue to keep herself from asking what was wrong with the girl to enjoy Belka's company that much. Goose, on the other hand, was ecstatic.

"You knew Belka from before?" Goose gawked, rushing in and grabbing the girl's hands, unable to contain her excitement. She'd been curious about Belka's life before Beacon, yet for some reason, she was strangely tight-lipped about her time before then. "You must have so many stories!"

Whiskey's smile turned devious and teasing as she looked over to Belka, who raised an eyebrow.

"Oh I have a ton, like this one time her auntie took us to-"

"I still have the video of you after you got your wisdom teeth out." Belka said as a quick warning, immediately recognising the embarrassing tale she was going to recant. The promise of mutually assured embarrassment caused Whisky to gasp dramatically, but she couldn't keep it up as they both broke into laughter at the shared memories that only they knew about.

"So, seems like most of us know each other, you girls wanna stick around? I bet we could get up to a lot of fun!" Ken suggested in a clearly leading way. Goose was already on board and Belka and Whiskey were going to stick together regardless, so the rest more or less fell in line, with Anga and Lao taking up the back.

"Is your team typically so…" Anga trailed off, looking for the right word to use without coming across as too standoffish, seeing as they'd be sticking together for the time being.

"Chaotic? Yes." Lao answered bluntly, shrugging, as by now, he'd come to accept the antics that came with his team. He got an awkward but supportive pat on the arm from the other boy, who just shook his head as Ken had to jump out of the way of a sudden flowerpot that almost landed on his head, panting as though he was visibly winded after the fact.

"My condolences."

"Ugh, my whole head hurts." Lumi whined, her hair tied up into an elegant looking bun as her ponytail had started to brush up against her neck, the skin left inflamed and sensitive from her sunburn. Jin went to pat her back in sympathy, but thankfully thought better of it. Scarlet, on the other hand, tried really hard to resist slapping the bright red neck of her partner. It was just right there, she could probably get to one of the doors in the hallway before she got a glyph off. Granted, it was a dick move, but she was pretty sure Lumi was currently in the lead for dick moves, so she was like sixty-something percent justified. What ultimately stopped her didn't come down to any moral reasons though, it was mostly the similar burn she had in a V-shape down her cleavage that Lumi was sure to target in return. With mutually assured pain keeping her from acting out, she tried a more diplomatic option.

"Hey, chin up, I bet you'll look good with a tan." she said, trying to be supportive. In truth, it was kinda hard to imagine Lumi with a tan, she was just so pasty that it felt… off, like a Beowolf giving a kid a chocolate bar, but then again, maybe a few shades would help, certainly nothing like Vera's obviously fake tan though, that would contrast horribly with her light blonde hair.

"My family doesn't tan Scarlet, I'm just going to have a sore face and neck for the whole trip!" Oof, okay, she could see why Lumi was upset about it now. Sure, she burned too, same as her dad, but her mom's Mistralian genes ensured she'd come out with a nice light tan for her troubles. Going through that burn for nothing? Yeah, that would probably annoy the hell out of her too.

"I'm sure we can get you some sunscreen, it's Vacuo, they have to have tons of the stuff in the school alone!" Jin said, the promise of protection from the sun's harsh rays easing her mood just slightly. As they continued walking, Jet looked at the doors as they went down the hall, with each door they passed making him more impatient as he looked down at his scroll. Having spent all day under the burning rays of the sun, he was tired and just wanted an ice cold shower.

"What floor are we on again? We definitely should have found the room by now."

"Four, right?" Jin asked, having not really thought about it, but he was pretty sure that was where they were located. It probably would have been easier to get to their assigned dorm if Vacuo's guest dorms were properly labeled with numbers instead of tiny holoscreens displaying the name of the residing team.

"I thought it was floor three, that's where I remember our room was." Lumi said. She had been sure before, but now that the question had been raised, she was starting to doubt that. Scarlet wasn't sure herself, honestly having just not paid attention to where exactly they were going to be staying, as Jet was the one in charge of finding their room after they arrived. Sighing, Jet made a b-line for another team of students roaming the halls, not having the patience for another case of them wandering around pretending to know where they were.

"Excuse me, is this floor four or three?" he asked a figure with their back turned, any defining features obstructed by what looked to be a fancy-looking dark blue cape of sorts. At least, that's what he thought it was, because as the man turned to face him, a pair of loose sleeves rolled separately from the main mass of the cape, revealing it to be one of those old fashion naval coats sailors used to wear, which in hindsight, explained the matching feathered tricorn hat. Now that he was turned around and no-longer obscured by his coat, his entire get up wouldn't look out of place in a pirate display at a museum. He wore a well-worn cloth shirt and vest that were rolled up to his elbows and opened in a V shape to show off his toned chest, accompanied by a tattered blue cloth that wrapped around his waist like a sash, which seemed redundant given that he wore an actual leather belt with a gold buckle displaying a skull impaled on the middle prong of a trident. His skin was a dark tan, to the point that Jet almost thought it was his natural color if not for how weathered it looked for his age. Really, if it wasn't for the obviously Mistralian outfits worn by the remainder of his team, he'd have assumed the guy was a native of Vacuo. Frankly, all he was missing at this point was a parrot sitting on his shoulder, and maybe an eyepatch or a prosthetic limb. The man wasn't much taller than Jet himself, but looked him up and down with an appraising eye, then a smirk registered on his face that, for some reason, reminded him of Scarlet's.

"Aye, this be da third floor lad." Did… did that really just come out of his mouth? Jet had to do a double take, looking behind him to the rest of his team to make sure he hadn't just had a brief hallucination of some sort. Jin was giggling and Lumi facepalmed, wincing as she smacked her beet red face. Okay, so he hadn't misheard him, well, it wasn't like he could take the man seriously in his weird pirate larping get up anyway, but now he was debating just walking off. Unfortunately, Scarlet had other plans.

"Why thank you sir, and here I thought you'd turn out to be some petty scoundrel." she said, once again wielding The Voice, much to the dismay of her team.

"Arg, that I am, though a scoundrel like me ain't about helpin' a pretty lass and her crew!" Scarlet practically had to bite her tongue to keep from laughing, he fucking arged at her! This was great, screw trying to sound cool, she just wanted to see who'd break character first between them. Jet mouthed the words 'I'm sorry' to the grey haired man armored in plate mail that stood directly behind the fool currently playing along with her antics. He was a big guy, not quite as tall as Jin, but around as muscular if the size of his armor was anything to go by. Additionally, like Jet, he also had red eyes that were completely unamused with the situation. However, the one most irritated with the situation was a man with fiery red hair somewhat tamed by a black and gold fabric headband. His clothing followed a similar aesthetic, a simple black and red set of Mistralian robes that wouldn't look out of place on Lao. His eyes, also a distinctive crimson, narrowed as he stormed forward, grabbing the bluenette by his arm.

"Noah, I swear on the Ryoushi name, if you keep up that insufferable fake voice I will-!" At his teammate starting to shake him like a ragdoll, Noah couldn't keep up the act, bursting into laughter.

"Pfft- okay, okay, relax Akato." Hearing his friend's voice without that unbearably fake and exaggerated accent, Akato let him go, crossing his arms in a very unamused way. " Sorry about that, I'm Noah Violette, me and these weirdos here are NAYA."

"Nah, it's cool, I'm Scarlet Taurus-Fall by the way, but that's kinda a mouthful, so just call me Scarlet. We're team SJJL." Scarlet said, holding her hand out for a fist bump that he immediately met. She liked this guy, dumb fun like that was too rare as of late! Their teams, meanwhile, were both just glad that the two hadn't done this in public. The one girl on NAYA quickly noticed Lumi, her bright blue eyes widening in recognition.

"Wait… You're Lumi Arc-Schnee right?" It had been hard to see initially but as she stepped around the boys, she noticed the girl's attire, a sleeveless white halter top made of exceedingly fine silk that met with a royal blue backless bodysuit embroidered with gold at her midsection, adorned with a white leather belt at her waist, and matching sleeves that started part way through her bicep, exposing her shoulders, and flared out at the end with deep blue feathers. Her hair and eyes were a brilliant aquamarine, and a pair of small golden horns emerged from the cascade of her hair just behind her bangs, though a closer inspection revealed they were merely false, attached to a circlet that looped around the back of her head and rested on her ears. Though, for all of the obvious opulence she clad herself with, nothing was as eye-catching as the feathered wings sprouting from her back, the same deep blue as the feathers that ended her sleeves, which, in hindsight, explained the halter top and backless bodysuit. Not one to be rude, Lumi smiled and gave a polite bow.

"The one and only. It's a pleasure to meet you, I like your wings!"

"Yes, the Yddraigwen wings are beautiful, aren't they?" The winged Faunus said. Stepping forward, the girl's wings were far easier to see as they stretched out behind her to show off, what Lumi had suspected were avian wings were in reality reptilian in nature, sporting beautiful blue scales at the base of the wing that gradually faded into feathers that shined with both power and elegance, like that of a dragon's from a fantasy novel. All the while, she was raising her head as if preening from the praise sent her way, and after a moment the armored boy coughed in a subtle attempt to get her attention. "Ah, where are my manners? My name is Lapis Yddraigwen, this here is my bodyguard, Argentio Highwind."

"Oh, cool, your names are all mouthfuls too?" Noah joked, ignoring the offended looks from Akato and Lapis. Jin laughed at that, somehow not realizing that, out of his team, Jet was the only one without a hyphenated name.

"Well, his name's just Jet Black, mine is probably the worst though. My full name is Jinzi Belladonna-Xiao-Long, but my friends call me Jin." With a big toothy grin, he held his hand out to the pirate-themed Huntsman in training, but the boy had this thousand-yard stare appear the moment he'd said his name, almost like a switch had flipped in his brain.

"Jinzi… you're a monkey Faunus, right?" Noah asked with a suspicious tone, leaving the boy hanging. Jin tried to handwave the awkward introduction away, laughing and running his hand through his already neat hair.

"Oh, yeah, most people actually assume I'm a cat Faunus, which is actually pretty funny because one of my moms is a cat Faunus, but her trait is her ears." he said, trying to change topics, but to no avail, as Noah's suspicion turned to an outright glare at the bigger boy.

"Yeah that's… whatever." He said before starting to walk off. "Come on guys, I'm tired."

"Oh, uh, see you later then?" Jin tried one last time, this time only to be completely ignored as he walked off. Jin looked at Scarlet confused, wondering if he'd done something wrong by mistake. After all, he'd put his mouth in his foot and ruined interactions before, but he genuinely didn't know what he might have done here. His leader didn't know either, only able to give him a bewildered shrug of her shoulders. Looking to the remainder of Noah's team gave no answers either, the three similarly confused by what Jin could only assume was out-of-character behavior for the boy.

"Sorry about that, he's not usually…" Argentio tried to excuse his friend, but, seeing as he was just as blindsided by the change in tone as the others, he just didn't know what to say. The rest of NAYA awkwardly headed out after their leader, leaving SJJL confused.

"Was it something I said?"

"Maybe he was jet-lagged or something?" Jet suggested, though Jin wasn't so sure, as the mood change had happened right after he introduced himself. He'd ask later, maybe make it up to the guy if he'd accidentally offended him in any way.

K cursed under his breath as sweat dripped from his brow and onto the metal floor of the airship. He wasn't even off his transport, and already he was regretting not charging extra for having him work in this unbearable heat. Thankfully, he'd be out of the cramped cargo hold of the airship soon, and could find a nice high-end hotel with plenty of air conditioning to lay low at while planning his next move. The door lowered just a few minutes later, and, stretching his legs, he stepped out into the open air… only to immediately regret it.

"Bloody hell, what is that!?" It was worse, it was actually somehow worse once he was outside and under the sun. It was like concentrated heat was being shot down directly onto him!

"That would be the sun." the pilot who'd allowed him to stow away answered dryly. He could have just snuck onto a regular transport for free, but that had its own list of complications and came with the very real risk of being caught. Rolling his eyes, K looked over the sandy loading area they'd landed in.

"I figured, why's it so damn hot!?" he asked as he looked around to make sure the area was empty, finding the arrangements were just as promised. It wasn't that he didn't trust the man, as he'd come recommended by a friend when discrete transportation was necessary, but he liked to be certain.

"I dunno man, that's just how Vacuo is." Well, so much for an actual reason. Looking back at the man, he saw him unloading an unmarked crate, unlike the others, which had clear warning labels and order numbers. Assuming it was another less than legal job that just happened to cross over with his own, he started to walk off, but not before the man spoke up again. "So, you know where you're headed? The little moth just said you had some under the table business to handle."

"I've got it handled, I've got a good while to figure out the lay of the land, just gotta find my mark is all." he said, not bothering to hide his frown, not knowing why she'd said anything at all. Sure, it was obvious he was here for some very illegal things considering he'd snuck into another kingdom, but the idea of a stranger knowing anything more than he had to typically didn't end well.

"You gonna need a pick up once your job's done?" K stopped in his tracks, now fully certain that this might be a problem. If he was this much of a talker and this indiscreet with all his jobs, then it wasn't out of the question that he may say something in passing by the wrong person, or worse, get caught and give him up for some sort of deal, neither of which he could afford to have happen.

"Do you always ask this many questions?" Turning back around, he sized the man up, average height and build, but clearly no fighter, it would be over in a second if he actually tried. If he left the crate in the open, it would just be assumed to be a black market deal gone wrong, nothing to tie it back to him.

"Just when I know the money's good." Oh, so maybe he wasn't as stupid as he'd thought, he was just greedy.

"And with the sort of money I'm paying, do you really think you should know more than you need to?" The veiled warning was more than most in his position would have gotten, and if it wasn't for the fact that he knew his friend would be inconvenienced if he turned up dead, he wouldn't even have gotten that. Yet the man didn't seem to grasp what he was saying, either that, or he just didn't care.

"A little late for not knowing too much I'm afraid."

"If that's the case… I'm guessing you know where I can get some under-the-table equipment?" At his question, he grew smug, tapping the crate as if to say 'well duh'.

"I might know a guy." K smiled. Well, he could live for now at least, and if this guy lived up to his promise, he could live after the job too.